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Earthquake-Induced Landslides in the Roadside Slopes of East Nepal After Recent September 18, 2011 Earthquake

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Earthquake-Induced Landslides

Abstract

Being located in central part of the Himalayan ranges, Nepal is regarded as one of the earthquake-prone countries in the region. Earthquake is a major concern of Nepal because of rapid population growth, poor land use planning, precarious settlement patterns, and poorly implemented building code. Earthquakes in Nepal have been reported since 1255 while major earthquakes were recorded in 1408, 1681, 1810, 1833, and 1866, 1934, 1980 and 1988. Recent earthquake of September 18, 2011 measuring 6.9 in Richter scale killed 6 people and injured 30 people in Nepal. There were many roadside slope damages near the epicenter area. To assess the roadside slope damages after this earthquake, a field visit was conducted and a landslide inventory map along the roadside slope was prepared for the most problematic area. For this study, Koshi and Mechi highways of eastern Nepal were selected as study area and earthquake-induced landslides on the roadside slopes were evaluated in terms of characteristics and mode of occurrences.

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Acknowledgments

The study has been partly funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The authors wish to thank Jalaja Sharma Dahal for her support in field work and Anjan Kumar Dahal and Santosh Dhakal for their technical supports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Tri-Chandra Campus, Tribhvuan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Ranjan Kumar Dahal

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan

    Netra Prakash Bhandary, Manita Timilsina & Ruichi Yatabe

  3. Kagawa University, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan

    Shuichi Hasegawa

Authors
  1. Ranjan Kumar Dahal
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  2. Netra Prakash Bhandary
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  3. Manita Timilsina
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  4. Ruichi Yatabe
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  5. Shuichi Hasegawa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ranjan Kumar Dahal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of Civil & Environ. Engineering, Gunma University, Tenjin 1-5-1, Kiryu, 376-8515, Gunma, Japan

    Keizo Ugai

  2. , Faculty of Education, Art and Science, Yamagata University, Kojirakawa 1-4-12, Yamagata, 990-8567, Japan

    Hiroshi Yagi

  3. , Dept. of Civil & Environ. Engineering, Gunma University, Tenjin 1-5-1, Kiryu, 376-8515, Gunma, Japan

    Akihiko Wakai

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Dahal, R.K., Bhandary, N.P., Timilsina, M., Yatabe, R., Hasegawa, S. (2013). Earthquake-Induced Landslides in the Roadside Slopes of East Nepal After Recent September 18, 2011 Earthquake. In: Ugai, K., Yagi, H., Wakai, A. (eds) Earthquake-Induced Landslides. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32238-9_16

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