Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Source:
Crozier 1989.
risk, and this in turn needs to be qualified by the
vulnerability of those elements and values.
Elements at risk, in terms of tangible
characteristics such as property, buildings and
production values, are relatively easy to establish.
However, experience has shown that many other
short-term and long-term costs are associated
with landslide activity (Crozier 1989). These may
include expenditure on research and conservation
measures, degradation of the soil resource and the
consequent cumulative losses from primary
productivity. Vulnerability is also difficult to
measure and is very dependent on the nature of
society affected. This may not just relate to
technical factors but also to organisational factors
and the distribution of wealth and power.
for the specialists in areas such as soil physics,
economics and engineering. However,
geographers have also contributed to specialist
areas of slope stability research by developing
models and providing empirical information from
field monitoring.
The landslide process itself is a product of the
interrelationships between a number of natural
systems, including geological, geomorphological,
hydrological, climatic and human land-use
systems. Understanding landslides requires an
ability to analyse the relationships between these
systems. Geographers have been able to make a
valuable contribution in this area because they
generally examine a wide range of conditions
within the landscape from a spatial and temporal
perspective at a range of scales.
Above all, geographers treat the process as a
component of a human-physical system. This
highlights not only the risk and vulnerability of
society but also reveals the human factor as a cause
of much slope stability.
CONCLUSION
Geographers have a major role to play in landslide
hazard and risk assessment. This is because, like all
hazards, the risk results from the interrelationships
between the human and physical environments—
a traditional focus of geographical study. It is not
an exclusive role, because there is always a need
