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Article

Episodes 2018; 41(4): 225-233

Published online December 1, 2018

https://doi.org/10.18814/epiiugs/2018/018017

Copyright © International Union of Geological Sciences.

Community based landslide risk mitigation in Thailand

Philipp Schmidt-Thomé1*, Tinnakorn Tatong2, Passkorn Kunthasap2, Somsak Wathanaprida2

1Geological Survey of Finland, PO Box 96, 02151 Espoo, Finland; *Corresponding author, E-mail: Philipp.schmidt-thome@gtk.fi
2Geology and Geohazard Bureau, Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), 75/10 Rama VI Rd. Ratchatawee, Bangkok 10400, Thailand

Correspondence to:E-mail: Philipp.schmidt-thome@gtk.fi

Received: September 27, 2017; Revised: November 10, 2018; Accepted: November 10, 2018

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Rural mountain areas in Thailand have a high hazard potential for landslides. Settlements in hazardous areas are expanding and hill slopes are being deforested. Many former forest areas have been converted into agricultural lands, thereby decreasing slope stabilities. Since the beginning of the 21st century disasters caused by landslides have increased in Thailand. The landslides that lead to disasters in villages are in fact debris flows caused by heavy rains and landslides upstream. Landslides resulting from seismic activities are uncommon in Thailand. The landslide hazard risk in Thailand is defined by the hazard (the debris flow, i.e., landslide prone areas) and the vulnerability (people living in landslide hazard areas). The landslide prone area mapping is based on the geology and the morphology, and the vulnerability upon settlements. The resulting landslide risk map was used to identify all risk areas and consequently the establishment of a community based landslide observation network has been able to reduce the landslide related risks. This network focuses on training local people to understand the risks related to landslides and provides villages with simple tools to detect early signs of threatening landslides and evacuate villagers to safe places. These networks have proven to be very successful, because it was possible to sensibilize and train villagers on the hazard and the risk with the result to effectively protect human lives during several landslide events.