Landslide hazard assessment and risk reduction in the rural community of Rampac Grande, Cordillera Negra, Peru

Abstract

Abstract Reducing landslide risk is a complex task, which requires knowledge of various environmental and social characteristics, the use of acceptable technical solutions and the collaboration of several actors. Scientists are among them, though usually limited attention is paid to understanding their constraints for participation in long-term landslide risk reduction projects. This article summarizes expert involvement in the twelve years long landslide investigations in the Rampac Grande community and illustrates that the voluntary commitment to the Sendai Partnerships for landslide disaster risk reduction could motivate research institutions to assume responsibility for community-centred landslide risk reduction. It also points out the possible negative effects of the expert–community contacts disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions as one aspect increasing the community’s vulnerability to landslides. The study site represents a socially, culturally and geologically complex environment which limits applicable technical solutions for landslide risk reduction and demands a high level of community participation in all landslide risk reduction steps. Landslide surface movement monitoring and slope stability calculations show that the studied slopes are very close to failure. The detailed hazard assessment was combined with field investigations of household vulnerabilities to assess risk in the zone around the 2009 catastrophic landslide. Results show that high vulnerability, rather than very high hazard, is responsible for assigning houses to the high-risk classes. This finding points out the preferable direction of landslide risk reduction efforts.