Building Design Techniques to Withstand Landslides

Landslides are among the many natural disasters causing massive destructions and loss of lives across the globe. India has a high degree of vulnerability towards the occurrence of Landslides. Landslides and avalanches are among the major hydro-geological hazards that affect large parts of India. Around 15% of the country’s region is prone to landslides. The Himalayas of Northwest and Northeast India and the Western Ghats are two regions of high vulnerability. Some major recent incidents are Kerala (2018), Himachal Pradesh (2018), Uttarakhand (2018), Tamenglong-Manipur (2018), and Kalikhola, Manipur (June 2017). Landslides are a natural phenomenon, but it involves many human activities which lead to the mass movement of landmass. In recent times we find the causes of landslides increasing day by day and the primary cause is deforestation. To survive, one needs to keep a check on these human activities. Landslides can result in enormous casualties and huge economic losses in mountainous regions. In order to mitigate landslide hazard effectively, new methodologies are required to develop and a better understanding of landslide hazard are required. To reduce future risks, it is important that a lot of attention is paid to the structural design of the buildings. This paper is aimed to propose some techniques and materials to resist landslides that allow the local communities to continue living on landslide prone slopes without causing damage to buildings.