Landslides

Direct and indirect health impacts of landslides

Health issues

Landslides refer to a range of different hazards that entail ground movement, including mudflow, rockslide or rockfall. They often occur alongside other hazards, such as floods, and are most common in mountainous areas. Landslides can cause various direct health impacts, including fatalities, injuries (e.g., broken bones, internal injuries, head trauma) and severe mental stress when destruction and death are witnessed (e.g., psychological distress, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)) (Kennedy et al., 2015). The impact severity is at least partly driven by the speed of the landslide, taking people by surprise and leaving little time for warning and activation of emergency procedures (Petrucci, 2022).

Landslides also have an indirect effect on human health. Disruption of infrastructure, healthcare facilities and transport networks can hinder emergency response efforts, reduce healthcare accessibility, and delay medical treatments, which exacerbates health issues (Kennedy et al., 2015). Further, disrupted infrastructure, including sanitation and water supply systems, as well as ecological impacts can reduce water quality and cause infections if people come into contact with contaminated water, land or food. Socio-economic consequences, such as displacement after a landslide and loss of job, property and livelihood can additionally lead to long-term mental health impacts (Kennedy et al., 2015). Recovery workers and volunteers involved in landslide-related clean-up activities are particularly exposed to health risks including disease, injury and death.

Observed effects

In the period 1995-2014, 27 countries[1] in the European region recorded 1,370 deaths and 784 injuries in 476 deadly landslides (Haque et al., 2016). When the cause of landslide was identified, it was most commonly due to extreme weather events, such as heavy rainfall and floods. In some other cases, landslides were triggered by mining, industrial activities or earthquakes (Haque et al., 2016). In general, people living in mountainous areas, such as the Alps or in mountainous areas in Türkiye, are the most affected by landslides but other factors, such as soil properties, land cover, and water flow, also in influence the likelihood of landslides. Between 1995-2014, there was an increasing trend of landslides, which was most pronounced between 2008 and 2014. In some countries, such as Italy and Türkiye, where 43% of all deadly landslides were recorded, many more landslides were observed in the second half of the 1995-2014 period and particularly in the last 5 years, mostly triggered by natural phenomena like heavy rainfall and floods (Haque et al., 2016). There is very limited quantitative information available on the health impacts of landslides beyond fatalities or injuries and almost no data on psychosocial and mental health impacts of landslides in Europe (Kennedy et al., 2015).

Projected effects

It is expected that with climate change the frequency and magnitude of landslides will continue to increase, particularly in alpine regions and largely driven by an increase in extreme rainfall (Haque et al., 2016; Auflič et al., 2023). Nevertheless, a coherent understanding of the future impacts of climate change on landslides and their health impacts in Europe is blurred by the complexity of many different mechanisms and environmental factors at play (Olsson et al., 2019). For example, frequent occurrence of heavy rainfall and floods is likely to trigger more landslides. In high mountain ranges, warming can also lead to permafrost melting and associated landslides. On the other hand, in lower range mountains where warming reduces the number of freeze–thaw cycles, thus rockfall-promoting weather conditions, landslides related to rockfall are expected to diminish (Nissen et al., 2023). Furthermore, an increase in the number of landslides would not necessarily lead to a proportional increase in health impacts. Resulting health impacts also depend on the extent of the landslide and the number of people at risk (Franceschini et al., 2022), which is driven by changes in land cover, population density and population distribution (Casagli et al., 2017). The EU-funded SAFELAND project on landslide risk in Europe estimated for example that the population at risk will grow by 15% by 2090 compared to 2010 (notwithstanding an overall population decrease) while only an additional 1.5% of the area will be exposed to landslides (mostly driven by changing precipitation patterns) (Jaedicke et al., 2011). 

Policy responses

Surveillance before a landslide takes place, including risk zone identification, monitoring and early warning systems (EWS), can prevent loss of lives, assets and livelihoods. Landslide risk zones have been identified across Europe in the European Landslide Susceptibility Map (ELSUS v2). The EU-funded GIMS project developed an advanced, low-cost system for monitoring landslides and subsidence, which can detect when hillslopes are primed for sliding and provide early indications of rapid, catastrophic movement. Norway and Italy have national EWSs for landslides, while in Italy, several regional governments also operate EWSs (Guzzetti et al., 2020).

Immediate actions after a landslide, such as issuing early warnings and activating search and rescue services and first aid for the injured (often part of existing disaster plans) can significantly reduce the health impacts of landslides. Government support after forced displacement due to events like landslides can also reduce long-term mental health impacts (Baseler and Hennig, 2023).

At the EU level, no specific policies respond exclusively to landslides. Yet, landslides are mentioned, often as part of a hazard list, in a few legislative documents such as the Common Provisions Regulation to govern 8 EU funds. Notably, landslides are not mentioned in the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change).

[1] While landslides were reported in 37 countries in the European Region between 1995 and 2014, only 27 reported casualties, i.e., Türkiye, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Georgia, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Spain, Austria, Norway, Romania, France, Bosnia, Germany, Slovenia, Armenia Azerbaijan, England, Greece, Serbia, Macedonia, Iceland, Ukraine, Andorra, Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Moldova

References