Abstract
Understanding when landslides occur and how they evolve is fundamental to grasp the dynamics of the landscapes and anticipate the dangers they can offer up. However, knowledge on the timing of the landslides remains overlooked in large parts of the world. This is particularly the case in low-capacity regions, where infrastructures are weak or absent and data scarcity is the norm. The tropics stand out as such regions, despite being affected by high and increasing landslide impacts. There, persistent cloud cover, rapid natural vegetation regeneration, cultivation practices and high weathering rates further challenge the harvest of timing information. Based on a synthesis of our recent work, we present new findings on the characterisation of the timing of the landslides in the North Tanganyika-Kivu Rift region, a tropical environment with very low capacity and high population density. Our aim is also to highlight the methodological approaches and research strategies that we adopt to investigate such slope processes in a large region lacking baseline studies. From an inventory of more than 9000 landslides with various timing accuracy (from daily to thousands of years), we identify causes and triggers of the slope instabilities in a context of important human-induced landscape changes. This is achieved through a holistic approach that combines field work, satellite remote sensing, historical photograph processing and geomorphic marker understanding. The role of the needs of the local stakeholders in the setting up of the research strategy is also highlighted, and research perspectives are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Damien Delvaux, Liesbet Jacobs, François Kervyn, Matthieu Kervyn, Caroline Michellier, Jan Moeyersons, Nicolas d’Oreye, Adrien Oth and Benoît Smets for helpful conversations. We are also grateful to Jan Moeyersons for thoughtful review and comments. Special thanks go to the local institutions (UB, UOB, CRSN, Protection Civile du Sud Kivu) with whom we collaborated for this research.
Funding
Financial support came from the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) for GeoRisCA (SD/RI/02A), RESIST (SR/00/305), MODUS (SR/00/358), AfReSlide (BR/121/A2/AfReSlide) and PAStECA (BR/165/A3/PASTECA) research projects (http://georisca.africamuseum.be, http://resist.africamuseum.be/, http://resist.africamuseum.be/MODUS, http://afreslide.africamuseum.be/, http://pasteca.africamuseum.be/) and from the Belgian Development Cooperation for the projects RA_S1_RGL_GEORISK and HARISSA. COSMO-SkyMed images were acquired through RESIST, MODUS and the CEOS Landslide Pilot. Désiré Kubwimana received support from ARES/PFS for field work and benefited from a PhD scholarship granted by the Bureau des Bourses d’Etudes et de Stages (BBES) and the Agence Marocaine de Coopération Internationale (AMCI). Jean-Claude Maki Mateso benefited from a Conseil de l’Action Internationale UCLouvain PhD scholarship. Judith Uwihirwe benefited from a Nuffic PhD Scholarship from the Strengthening Education 4 Agricultural Development (SEAD) project. Elise Monsieurs benefited from a F.R.S. – FNRS PhD scholarship.
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Dewitte, O., Dille, A., Depicker, A. et al. Constraining landslide timing in a data-scarce context: from recent to very old processes in the tropical environment of the North Tanganyika-Kivu Rift region. Landslides 18, 161–177 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01452-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01452-0