Ground instability and landslide management: raising awareness and increasing capacity for change within affected societies

There is general agreement amongst academics and practitioners that the impact of ground instability and landslides is likely to increase in the future as development and infrastructure encroach onto marginally stable slopes and due to the effects of climate change. Future policy should be more collaborative allowing governments, academics and industry to help build more resilient landslide management strategies for future generations. In order to mitigate the increasing risk it will be necessary to implement effective planning and development controls, and ensure high standards of slope engineering and protection measures. Raising awareness and increasing capacity for change within affected societies should be a core objective of any landslide management strategy. The paper presents a framework for developing effective landslide management strategies at administrative and local community levels where the impacts of ground instability and landslides are most felt and need to be addressed.