Geotechnical News • December 2016
37
GEO-INTEREST
Canadian technical guidelines and
best practices related to landslides
Landslides occur in all geographic
regions of Canada. Moreover, Can-
ada’s landscape is subject to many
different types of landslides. Given
the size of the country it is impossible
to precisely quantify the number of
events that take place annually, but
estimates could range in the thou-
sands. Fortunately, most of these
landslides are either small, or occur in
geographically isolated areas and do
not directly affect the health and safety
of individuals, communities or critical
infrastructure. Unfortunately others
result in a loss of life, significant dam-
age to roads, bridges, communication
and energy corridors, or environmental
degradation, such as loss of fish habi-
tat and/or timber and water resources.
In Canada during the past 160 years
over 600 individuals have lost their
lives to landslides; an average of
almost four fatalities per year. Annual
direct and indirect costs of landslides
in Canada are estimated to be on the
order of $200-$400 million.
Identifying landslide hazards and their
associated risks, understanding the
nature and characteristics of exist-
ing and future slope failures, assess-
ing potential effects, implementing
strategies for studying, monitoring
and managing unstable slopes and
determining appropriate options for
reducing or mitigating hazards and
risks fall on the shoulders of a number
of highly qualified Canadian geotech-
nical specialists, both engineers and
geoscientists. This expertise resides
in all sectors including academia, all
levels of government, industry and
consulting.
Under the Emergency Management
Act of Canada, Natural Resources
Canada (NRCan) is responsible for
providing emergency preparedness
information and advice related to
several natural hazards including
landslides, however, NRCan has no
legislated responsibilities in dealing
specifically with landslides. Practice
and expertise varies considerably from
province to province and territory to
territory. As a federal agency, NRCan
has the advantage to acquire, interpret
and disseminate information that bene-
fits all Canadians who may be affected
or potentially affected by landslides.
With this in mind, in 2010 the Geo-
logical Survey of Canada embarked
on a multi-year national endeavor to
develop guidelines and best practices
for Canadian landslide practitioners.
The aim was to provide a national
series of documents that are neither
legislated contributions nor a compen-
dium of standards. The purpose of the
documents is not to limit the practice
of Canadian professionals but rather to
provide relevant supportive informa-
tion that can be incorporated into
professional practice as needed.
Although initiated by the federal gov-
ernment, the effort has been endorsed
by a suite of Canadian landslide
specialists and end-users from all
sectors and all geographic regions. In
particular the activity benefited from
the support of the Canadian Geotech-
nical Society’s Landslide Committee
(now Geohazards Committee). From
the start the aim of the project was
to release documents as soon as they
were completed as GSC Open File
reports. As a result, the finished Open
Files show different years of publica-
tion. Reports were authored by many
individuals working in government,
academia, industry, and consulting. A
great many other individuals contrib-
uted information, data, images and
other aspects to the Open Files but
are not directly listed as authors. To
ensure credibility and authority, the
project was overseen by an indepen-
dent panel of leading Canadian land-
slide specialists who provided advice,
commentary and direct input into the
production of the separate Open Files.
All Open Files in this series have
now been released (see below). They
are currently being compiled under a
single cover with an aim to be released
as a GSC Bulletin sometime in 2017.
Since 2011, the individual Open
Files have been readily accessible for
free through GEOSCAN, the online
information portal for publications by
the Earth Sciences Sector of Natural
Resources Canada. To date, there have
been thousands of downloads of these
Open Files by the global community
of landslide specialists.
The Open Files produced through
this initiative are listed alphabetically
below, with the appropriate hyperlink
to a pdf version of the document.
Bobrowsky, P. and Couture, R. (2014)
Landslide Terminology – Cana-
dian Technical Guidelines and
Best Practices related to Land-
slides: a national initiative for
loss reduction. Geological Survey
of Canada, Open File 7623, 68
pages
Cruden, D. and VanDine, D. (2013)
Classification, Description, Causes
and Indirect Effects – Canadian
Technical Guidelines and Best
Practices related to Landslides:
a national initiative for loss
reduction. Geological Survey of
Canada, Open File 7359, 22 pages
/
nrcan_rncan/publications/ess_
sst/292/292505/of_7359.pdf
Guthrie, R. (2013)
Socio-Economic Significance -
Canadian Technical Guidelines
and Best Practices related to
Landslides: a national initiative for
loss reduction. Geological Survey
of Canada, Open File 7311, 19
pages
