Landslide Warning Systems in Low-And Lower-Middle-Income Countries: Future Challenges and Societal Impact

Abstract

AbstractThere is a growing body of literature that recognises the importance of warning systems to reduce landslide disaster risk and avoid the occurrence of disasters. Recent developments in landslide disasters around the world have heightened the need for the implementation of Landslide Early Warning Systems (LEWSs) particularly in low-and lower-middle-income countries (LICs and MICs), where levels of vulnerability and exposure are very high. However, no previous study has systematically evaluated the use of LEWSs in LICs and MICs. By means of a systematic review on the scientific literature this chapter explores the ways in which LEWSs have been implemented in LICs and MICs. This research seeks to address the spatial distribution of LEWSs in the world, specifically in LICs and MICs. Special attention is given to reviewing the development of LEWSs in terms of their inclusion in integrated disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies or as standalone initiatives, and the type of approaches followed, either as top-down or bottom-up. The chapter has three key components: (1) to prepare a search and inclusion criteria strategy for systematic literature review to collect a set of articles on LEWSs using the ISI Web of Science database; (2) to organize the literature review set to extract and analyse quantitative and qualitative data and information on LEWSs in LICs and MICs; and (3) to provide insights on a future LEWSs research agenda concerning critical issues and gaps in the literature and identifying main challenges with high societal impact. A noteworthy remark about this review is that only 12.4% of the total publications that met the specified criteria are from LICs and MICs. These papers address diverse dimensions of LEWSs in different degrees, but despite that, the actual use or implementation of LEWSs was addressed only by five papers. This suggests a potential disadvantage in the development and successful systematic implementation of LEWSs in these countries.