A Study on Factors Influencing Landslides in Sri Lanka
Abstract
Landslides are the most recurrent and prominent disasters in Sri Lanka. SriLanka has been subjected to a number of extreme landslide disasters that resulted in asignificant loss of life, material damage, and distress. It is required to explore a solutiontowards preparedness and mitigation to reduce recurrent losses associated withlandslides. This research study is aimed to recognize specific factors that mightinfluence the occuring of landslides in Sri Lanka
A questionnaire was used for the collection of primary information. Numerousfactors were considered when defining the research sample, but mainly focused on thelessons learned through a literature review. As the main focus of the research was onlandslides in Sri Lanka, several GIS (Geographic Information System) experts in theuniversity system were also invited to participate in the survey. Data was gathered fromone hundred and twenty six experts on the area of landslides from four universities ofSri Lanka. The data was then analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for theSocial Sciences) software.
Twelve factors were identified and it is important to note that the mostsignificant factor that influenced the occurring of landslides was rainfall, which has thehighest mean value in analysis. The other factors identified were Soil Material,Geology, Land Use, Curvature, Number of Previous Occurrences, Soil Texture, Slope,Aspect, Influence of Construction, Soil Drainage, and Soil Effective Thickness whichalso highly influence in occurring landslides.
Key words: Landslides, Influencing factors, Rainfall
