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Geotechnical News • September 2018
GEOHAZARDS
Richard Guthrie, Editor
Hola amigos! Field season finds me
in the high-altitude environments
of Indonesia, and now Peru, today
in Moquega, exploring geohazards
related to steep unending slopes, wind
blown soils and flash floods. I am
thinking, as always, about hazards and
risk, what is acceptable and what is
not, and how the hazards geoscientists
and engineers address compare to
the more frequent hazards that affect
everyday living for much of the world
(access to water, job security, safety
etc…).
In Canada, we appear to have estab-
lished a risk threshold that is variously
1:100 – 1:200 (basic flood design),
1:475 (damaging events), 1:2,500
(flood proofing for subdivisions), and
1:10,000 (catastrophic life threatening
events). This quarter, Mathias Jakob,
Pierre Friele, Michael Porter, Oldrich
Hungr and Scott McDougal give the
question of landslide risk (and by
inference risk in general) a thoughtful
treatment and make specific recom-
mendations using British Columbia as
their testing ground. I encourage you
to read their article.
Geohazards 7 was a success by all
accounts. It was well attended from
the beginning to the end and full of
excellent presentations demonstrating
innovative research and understand-
ing of earth surface processes. The
conference was interspersed with
impactful observations from the town
of Canmore, members of which were
so very impacted by the mountain
streams flooding in 2013. I came away
feeling like Canada is in good hands,
advancing in step with technology, and
genuinely contributing to this impor-
tant field. I’ll provide a more detailed
summary of the conference in Q4.
In the meantime, If you have a paper
or project related to Geohazards that
you think would be interesting to GN
readers, please send me note at
Until then,
Rick
Should BC plan for the 1:10,000 probability landslide event?
Matthias Jakob, P.Geo., Pierre Friele, P.Geo., Michael Porter, P.Eng.,
Oldrich Hungr, P.Eng./P.Geo., Scott McDougall, P.Eng.
Dedicated to our friend and teacher:
Professor Dr. Oldrich Hungr
who passed away on August 10, 2017
In British Columbia, geohazard risk
management in general, and land-
slide risk management specifically, is
becoming more pressing as develop-
ment continues to encroach into moun-
tainous areas and as hydroclimatic
extremes are projected to increase in
frequency and magnitude.
Landslide risk management has a long
history in BC and, while the province
does not suffer many landslide-related
fatalities compared to other causes
of involuntary premature death,
the economic losses are substantial
(Hungr, 2004). At this time, guidance
exists for practitioners and regulators
to manage landslide risk (e.g. EGBC,
2010). Hazard and risk assessments
require input in the form of a landslide
frequency-magnitude relationship or
estimates of the probability of differ-
ent landslide scenarios occurring. As
with all geophysical phenomena, the
higher the magnitude and intensity,
