St. Bernard LGU asks ICL to make town “center of study” for landslides
TACLOBAN CITY – The local government of St. Bernard, Southern Leyte is asking the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) to make the town as “center of study” in using technologies that predicts landslides, a natural disaster that killed a thousand of residents in Guinsaugon village three years ago.
St. Bernard town Mayor Rico Rentuza said that newly-invented sensors that was not yet proven can be best tested in Southern Leyte.
Rentuza said that they will push through with this proposal as experts from ICL signified their interest in holding another conference on the Guinsaugon landslide in their town next year.
“The conference will concentrate on how to use technology to predict landslide. Rain-induced is easier because you can warn people when it’s raining, but the incident caused by mild earthquakes is hard to predict,” Rentuza told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
“We want St. Bernard to be a center of study. It will help us. When they will form a conclusion, it can also help other areas of the world prone to landslide,” he said.
The mayor said that the technology is beneficial to their town considering that initial studies showed that the Guinsaugon landslide was induced by mild earthquakes that occurred for decades.
Over three years after the destructive landslide, local and foreign geoscientists have not yet completely resolved the real cause of the catastrophe. During the last International Conference, researchers have agreed that rainfall and earthquakes triggered the rockslide-debris avalanche that buried the village.
“There were earthquakes that have not registered a magnitude but can cause mountain slopes to become unstable. We need this technology that can predict earthquake-induced landslides,” he explained.
The latest technology consists of sensors connected to a data acquisition system, which processes and interprets the data as it is generated.
Experts explained in their website that it is also connected to a computer in a local control station, which receives the processed data and raises an alarm when required. The sensors monitor five parameters—the amount of rainfall, cracks, tilt of rock slopes, inclination of surrounding areas and earth pressure.
Another monitoring system gauges the stability of slopes by listening to soil movement.
This new system is likely to be more sensitive to slope changes and robust than traditional methods.
This new system is likely to be more sensitive to slope changes and robust than traditional methods, according to experts.
Rentuza said that they recently received a guideline from ICL as their basis for second round of research. The consortium composed of professors from various schools worldwide with most of them Japanese experts. “The group wants a lasting partnership with the local government.”
In its scheduled second conference next year on Guinsaugon landslide tragedy, experts will combine and coordinate international expertise in landslide risk assessment and mitigation studies.
Geoscientists’ studies has been focused on landslide and debris avalanches, landslide monitoring based on experiences in New Zealand, geologic evidences and eyewitness accounts, contribution of small magnitude earthquake, movements of pyroclastic deposits, hazard mapping, mitigation measures, among others. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO)
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