Landslides

Natural events and disasters always have a devastating impact on human settlements and incur economic and social effects on societies by destroying buildings and infrastructures. One of these destructive phenomenons is landslide that could damage communities, meadows and forests, communication lines, and monuments extensively in many parts of the globe, especially in mountainous countries such as Iran. Some information is currently available about the morphological cause and effects of some apparent cases. However, the destructive effects of this phenomenon on ancient settlements have not adequately been mentioned. This study examines an ancient landslide by combining data from two seasons of archaeological excavations of Tepe Mehr Ali, located in Fars province, and related interdisciplinary studies. The results of the excavations, geological evidence and morphology of the site indicate that the southern slope of the mound (about 35 degrees) to Balangan River, represent a landslide event leading to the abandonment of this site for some time during settlement periods.

Background: During the past few decades, landslide incidents have increased in intensity and frequency.Objectives: In this paper, we have attempted to empirically assess both the household-level vulnerability and resilience of households in Murree, Pakistan.Methodology: Variables regarding vulnerability and resilience concerning landslides were collected from the previous studies. The primary data concerning these variables were gathered with the help of a survey from 200 randomly selected households. The views of the experts of the National Disaster Management Authority about the variables were also noted. The subjective method was applied to assign weights to the variables.Results: Our analysis revealed very high values of vulnerability for the rural fringe (0.96) and urban fringe (0.94) as compared to the inner city (0.85). The overall resilience index of the rural fringe was very low (0.28) as compared to the nearly medium-level resilience index of the urban fringe (0.44) and medium-level resilience index of the inner city (0.51). Conclusion: The households in Murree were more vulnerable to landslides and had less resilience level.