Residents gather on the edge of the landslide left by the collapse of one of the main roads in the Mont Ngafula district in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Credit: ALEXIS HUGUET/AFP via Getty Images
Urbanization in tropical environments can accelerate the movement of large landslides, a study in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reveals.
The study led by researchers from the Royal Museum for Central Africa and published in Nature Geoscience, analysed hundreds of satellite images that revealed how more than 70 years of urbanization affected a landslide in the city of Bukavu, in the east of DRC.
The researchers investigated how slow-moving, deep-seated landslides 'behave' in tropical environments and whether this differs from landslides in high-latitude countries. Urbanization activities, such as building roads and houses, significantly reorganizes surface and subsurface water which alters slope stability, the study found.
However, the influence of slope urbanization on the dynamics of landslides is understudied in Africa. “Tropical regions, of Africa in particular, are largely overlooked in the scientific literature while (geo)hazards are common,” said Antoine Dille, the study’s lead author, from the Royal Museum for Central Africa.
Although avoidance of unstable slopes is usually not an option in cities such as Bukavu, where informal urbanization outstrips regulated progress, the researchers called for understanding of how human activities alter surface processes to help guide “effective risk planning and mitigation”.
Dille calls for comprehensive management of all forms of surface water. “We believe community-based approaches should be promoted to prevent loss of life and infrastructure due to land sliding,” he adds
