Landslide Hazard Analysis and Management: A Case Study from Nainital, India

Abstract

Among the physiographic divisions of India, the Himalayan terrain is the most prone to natural hazards like landslides. Fragile nature of the mountain ecosystem coupled with unplanned construction activities renders this terrain vulnerable to mass wasting processes. In this context, tackling landslide problems in Himalayan terrain had always appeared as a major challenge to engineers and town planners while implementing development schemes. This problem turned acute when disproportionate urbanization in hill stations aggravates existing condition of slope stability and posed major threat to human establishment. Hence, the need of the hour is to go for an effective landslide hazard management program by which appropriate remedial measures can be sought for hazard prone slopes and thus avoiding future disasters. In this regard, a detailed slope stability study was carried out at landslide ravaged Kailakhan area, situated at the SE corner of Nainital town, Uttarakhand, India. After identifying the type of instability and assessing slope characters, suitable remedial measures had accordingly been indicated for restoration of geo-environmental equilibrium of the area, as a long term measure for landslide hazard mitigation and management.