Landslide Monitoring in the Himalayan Region, India

Abstract

In Uttarakhand, the northern most state of India, comprising the sub and lesser Himalayan region, natural as well as human induced hazards casts a wide shadow over human life. The landslide occurrence is more frequent and is considered to be a major geological hazard. Every year valuable top soil cover erodes and washes away, several places experience massive landslides and debris flow, which results in damage to human life as well as to property. In recent years the intensity of natural hazards has increased surprisingly as a result of increase urbanization, hill slopes are being disturbed due to various construction activities particularly the road construction. It is difficult to stop the debris flow due to natural hazards like earthquake and landslides or weather related or by man made activities like dam and road construction. Number of Eco-task force have been created to conserve the forests. One of the major mitigation strategies could be through micro zonation approach. Satellite imagery can help both the monitoring and measuring of soil erosion.