The characteristics of the Mocoa compound disaster event, Colombia

Abstract

A rainfall-induced compound disaster happened in Mocoa in the pre-dawn hours of 1 April 2017. More than 300 people were killed, and a large number of houses and roads were destroyed in the worst catastrophe in the history of Mocoa. To investigate this disaster, a detailed interpretation was carried out using high-resolution images. Analysis of disaster characteristics based on satellite image revealed that the disaster could be identified as a consequence of compound mountain hazards including landslides, debris flows, and mountain torrents. The mountain hazards converged in the mountain watershed, which amplified the disaster's effects. Analysis considers that this disaster is the result of heavy rainfalls. Moreover, in-depth interpretation of rainfall data and satellite images spanning over 16 years reveals that the previous El Niño event (2014-2016) also played an important role, which caused reduced rainfall and vegetation coverage. The long period of drought brought by El Niño affected the growth of vegetation and reduced the ability of vegetation to cope with heavy rainfalls. The results reveal that both antecedent rainfalls and climate impact need to be taken into consideration for mountain hazard analysis.

The cost of rapid and haphazard urbanization: lessons learned from the Freetown landslide disaster

“…Although the disaster is commonly attributed to have been caused by heavy rainfall, this study reveals that human activities were definitive conditioning factors-by placing thousands of people in an obvious hazardous situation, and by disturbing the natural ecology and hydrology of the mountain slope. The link between mountain hazard disasters and expansion of mountain cities is gaining more scientific and management attention due to the potential of significant harm to poorly situated villages and densely populated urban areas, for example, the 2017 Mocoa landslide, Colombia (Cheng et al 2018), the 2014 Malin landslide, India (Singh et al 2016), the 2010 Gansu mudslide, China (Tang et al 2011), and the 2010 Atabad landslide and dammed river (Kargel et al 2010). This study examines how rapid land use change and haphazard urbanization acted as a catalyst for the Freetown disaster.…”

An Integrated Rural Development Mode Based on a Tourism-Oriented Approach: Exploring the Beautiful Village Project in China

“…In order to gain a deeper understanding of this mode, we chose Qinggangshu Village as a small-scale case study. Remote sensing images from Google Earth [33,34], in 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2017, were used in order to show the change in land use. Intensive and meticulous field surveys were undertaken in this village to collect useful data such as that of the environment and the impact from the tourism industry development.…”

Temporal and spatial distributions of landslides in the Qinba Mountains, Shaanxi Province, China

“…Furthermore, antecedent rainfall is an important factor in triggering landslides because it can reduce soil suction and increase the pore-water pressure in soils (Guo et al 2013;Ma et al 2014). Future research should also consider the contributions of antecedent precipitation (Cheng et al 2018) before the landslide events together with the landslide initiation mechanism, especially the migration of fine particles as proposed by Cui et al (2017).…”