Geological and soil engineering properties of shallow landslides occurring in the Kutupalong Rohingya Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Alam²,

Progress in Landslide Research and Technology

et al. 2023

Self Cite

Landslide disasters in Bangladesh’s Chittagong hill districts (CHD) put lives, livelihood, and the ecosystem at risk. Therefore, understanding the causes of landslide events in CHD is crucial to preparing and implementing disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies. The causes of landslides are generally seen through the lenses of physical science. However, to better understand the landslide disaster mechanism, it is essential to explore the human activities that trigger and aggravate the events. This article uses qualitative social science tools and techniques to investigate CHD’s anthropogenic-induced landslide disasters. Forty key informants from diverse professions, ethnicities, communities, and backgrounds were interviewed between 9 June and 3 November 2020. The recorded interviews were translated, transcribed, and thematically analysed in NVivo software. The results show that human-induced landslides in CHD evolve around three broader areas: demography, climate change, and lack of coordination and regulation. First, increased population, hill cutting, deforestation, manipulated agricultural practices, and sand and stone extraction is the leading anthropogenic activities of landslides in CHD. Second, the influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh significantly increased landslide vulnerability. Third, climate change-induced erratic rainfall is leading to more rainfall-induced landslides. Finally, a lack of coordination and regulations among various institutions hinders the DRR process. The short, medium- and long-term recommendations include stopping illegal hill cutting and deforestation, regulating heavy vehicles, increasing coordination, institutionalising early warning systems, conducting massive awareness campaigns, conducting further research, addressing challenges such as lightning, climate migration and conflict, and creating a master plan exclusive for the entire region and coming up with a political consensus for better implementation of the plan.

Section: Study Area Profilementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Anthropogenic Aggravation of Landslide Disasters in Bangladesh: Key Informants’ Perspectives

Alam²,

Progress in Landslide Research and Technology

et al. 2023

Self Cite

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

“…The term forensic geology here refers to an investigation of geological conditions to determine the cause or physical evidence of landslides that occur in a specific area from the geological point of view. Several studies on the geological conditions of various landslide events, such as those in Mendatica, Tianquan, and Kutupalong, Rohingya, have been conducted [26][27][28]. The factors affecting landslides are topography, geology, climate, land use, environmental conditions, rainwater infiltration, and surface water flow.…”

Section: Geology and Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic assessment of landslides induced by environmental changes in Sumedang, Indonesia, an important step for the future disaster prevention

Prawiradisastra¹,

Shomim²,

Trisnafiah³

et al. 2023

Landslide forensics assessment was conducted in Cimanggung, Sumedang with the aim of identifying the causes and processes of landslides to guide the critical step of future disaster prevention. The methodology includes investigations on geology, lithology, hydrology, land cover, land-use changes, and rainfall triggering the landslide. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were used to investigate detailed spatial geomorphology for determining landslide development. The forensic assessment of the landslide that occurred in Cimanggung, Sumedang, on January 9, 2021, revealed the role of environmental changes. The conversion of open land to residential areas affects the water balance. The surface burden to the site on the hilltop by houses and toe-side cutting at the bottom of the slope has occurred. Changes in land conditions and hydrology, along with lithology thickness and variations, are essential aspects of the landslide incident. During the high rainfall rate, there is more water runoff, and the flow could be concentrated in a paleo channel formed by thicker unconsolidated sediments. The combination of these aspects destabilized the slope causing it to slide. Water management, particularly drainage improvement, should be established to prevent excessive runoff and centralized infiltration. Detailed hazard zonation, site delineation, and rainwater storage could be developed to avoid future landslides.

“…The grain size analysis of the collected landslide slope materials from the field was done in the laboratory by a combined hydrometer and mechanical sieve analysis following the ASTM standards. In addition, detailed information on shear strength and other engineering parameters of soils in the KRC were collected from Kamal et al (2022).…”

Section: Particle Size Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After the settlement of Rohingya refugees, extensive deforestation and slope cutting eventually resulted in numerous landslide occurrences (Braun et al 2019;Hasan et al 2020;Hossain and Moniruzzaman 2021). Kamal et al (2022) showed that anthropogenic interventions and low strength of residual soil are the major causes of landslide occurrence in the KRC. The large scarp of slope washed away with a massive volume of materials during the 27 July 2021 landslide event directly buried some houses on the modified slope and completely/partially destroyed them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the 27 July 2021 rainfall-induced catastrophic landslide event in the Kutupalong Rohingya Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Kamal

Hossain

et al. 2022

Geoenviron Disasters

Self Cite

This article critically investigates a catastrophic rainfall-induced landslide event that occurred on 27 July 2021 in the Kutupalong Rohingya Camp (KRC) in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, from geological and geomorphological perspectives. Large-scale anthropogenic interventions mainly caused the disastrous landslide event in the KRC in addition to intense rainfall. Before the landslide occurrence, about 300 mm of cumulative rainfall was recorded in the previous seven days and 120 mm of rainfall during the landslide event. A preliminary investigation was conducted to understand the extent, causative factors, and landslide characteristics. The landslide is of mud-flow type, but on the nearby slope, slumping was also visible. The landslide length was about 33 m, width 31 m, and area 612 m2. The approximate volume of slope materials displaced during the landslide event was about 2450 m3. The displaced slope materials mainly were silt and sand. The landslide event caused five fatalities and damaged nearly 5000 shelters in the KRC area. The devastation from such a small landslide event was attributed to dense households on the slope’s hilltop, slope, and toe. The camp areas and host communities are subjected to frequent and fatal landslides in the years to come due to intense human interventions and climatic conditions. The modifications of the slopes have been reducing the cohesion and the shear strength of the slope materials. Therefore, it is recommended to undertake proper mitigation and preparedness measures, including developing and implementing a landslide early warning system to address the emerging humanitarian crisis in the KRC and its surroundings.