Effective and Sustainable Flood and Landslide Risk Reduction Measures: An Investigation of Two Assessment Frameworks

Abstract

Natural events such as floods and landslides can have severe consequences. The risks are expected to increase, both as a consequence of climate change and due to increased vulnerabilities, especially in urban areas. Although preventive measures are often cost-effective, some measures are beneficial to certain values, while some may have negative impacts on other values. The aim of the study presented here was to investigate two frameworks used for assessing the effectiveness and sustainability of physical and nonphysical flood and landslide risk reduction measures. The study is based on literature, available information from authorities and municipalities, expert knowledge and experience, and stakeholder views and values. The results indicate that the risks for suboptimization or maladaptation are reduced if many aspects are included and a broad spectrum of stakeholders are involved. The sustainability assessment tools applied here can contribute to a more transparent and sustainable risk management process by assessing strategies and interventions with respect to both short-and long-term perspectives, including local impacts and wider environmental impacts caused by climate change, for example. The tools can also cover social and economic aspects. The assessment tools provide checklists that can support decision processes, thus allowing for more transparent decisions.

Role of Spatial Analysis in Avoiding Climate Change Maladaptation: A Systematic Review

“…Jones et al [42] "maladaptation happens when short-term strategies increase vulnerability in the long term" [43] Barnett and O'Neill [3,8,44] "action taken ostensibly to avoid or reduce vulnerability to climate change that impacts adversely on, or increases the vulnerability of other systems, sectors or social groups" [7,15,16,26,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60] Table 1. Cont.…”

“…The assessment frameworks adopted in the reviewed studies are suitable for analyzing specific climate risks. However, maladaptation must be considered within a comprehensive risk framework [50]. Maladaptive risks arise from initial climatic risks and increase vulnerability due to risk dynamics and substitution.…”

Evaluation of Power System Resilience Improvements in Low-Income Neighborhoods

“…Electricity infrastructures are often in trouble due to natural hazards, such as floods and landslides, extreme weather conditions, such as heavy rain and windstorms, and human-made attacks, such as vandalism and theft of energy or electrical equipment. In low-income households and communities, the consequences of such extreme events are further amplified due to the network topology and irregularities combined with social poverty [13], as explained as follows.…”

Quantitative Risk Analysis of a Rainfall-Induced Complex Landslide in Wanzhou County, Three Gorges Reservoir, China

“…Risk analysis is an effective measure for hazard prevention and mitigation of rainfall-induced landslides (Dai et al 2002;Glade et al 2005;Fell et al 2008). The framework of landslide risk analysis is relatively well-developed and applications to rainfall-induced landslides are commonly carried out by researchers worldwide (Cascini et al 2013;Andersson-Skold and Nyberg 2016). Landslide risk assessment can be classified into three categories based on the map-scale of the study area: (1) For large-scale areas, regional landslide susceptibility assessments using statistical methods and landslide hazard evaluation based on magnitude-frequency distribution approaches are the main technical routes to carry out semiquantitative risk assessment (Malamud et al 2004); (2) For field-scale areas, deterministic models are often applied to calculate slope stability and landslide intensity in consideration of triggering factors such as rainfall and earthquake shaking with a specific return period (Iverson 2000;Baum and Godt.…”