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Development of Early Warning Technology of Rain-Induced Rapid and Long-Travelling Landslides

Disaster Prevention and Mitigation

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Development of Early Warning Technology of Rain-Induced Rapid and Long-Travelling Landslides

Predict catastrophic landslides a day in advance

Principal Investigator

- Dr.
  KONAGAI Kazuo
  Principal Researcher, Research Division, International Consortium on Landslides
- Dr.
  Asiri Karunawardena
  Director General National Building Research Organisation

ODA Recipient Country

Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Research Institutions in Japan

International Consortium on Landslides/Kyoto University/Institute of Science Tokyo/ Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute / Kochi University

Research Institutions in Counterpart Country

National Building Research Organisation

Adoption fiscal year

FY 2019

Research Period

5 Years

Overview of the Research Project

Developing a system for transmission of early warning information about long-travelling landslides and support of risk assessment
Landslides occur frequently in Sri Lanka, where there has been a marked increase in torrential rainfall with the onset of climate change. In order to make it possible to predict a day in advance the occurrence and range of rapid and long-travelling landslides, which are particularly severe, this project develops a system for early transmission of information predicting landslides and for supporting risk assessment, incorporating cutting-edge technology that predicts maximum accumulated rainfall within a 500-meter grid. It takes into consideration the influence of orographic turbulence in mountainous areas, and predicts the occurrence, spread, and range of landslides due to unsaturated seepage in highly weathered soil on hillsides in tropical forests.

Contributing to disaster prevention in monsoon region countries subject to frequent disasters due to torrential rainfall
The technology developed in this project, which predicts rainfall and the occurrence and range of landslides, is expected to be used in various fields, such as in mitigation of rapid and long-travelling landslides, flood control, and disaster prevention in rural and urban areas in Sri Lanka, as well as in other Southeast Asian nations in monsoon regions, where similar disasters are common.