Regional land use planning can be started in Kerala reduce the risk of landslides: GSI Geology director

“GSI has just completed a macro scale landslide susceptibility mapping in 2020 for the entire landslide-prone areas of 19,300 sq. km. in parts of 13 districts of Kerala”

"A regional land use planning can be started immediately in Kerala with the available macro-scale landslide geo database to reduce the risk to a great extent," says Dr. Saibal Ghosh, Director (Geology), Geohazard Research and Management Centre, Geological Survey of India (GSI), in an e-mail interview to The Hindu as the State continued to face the increasing threat of disasters induced by landslide events.

In hilly/ mountainous terrains, it is possible to understand or map areas with varying degrees/ likelihood of susceptibility to initiation of landslides or similar mass wasting processes, which can act as a vital geo information tool for use in land-use zoning regulations. However, the availability of that particular spatial geo information and its scale of mapping is very important to the planners and administrators for implementation.