Prevention of Mountain Disasters and Maintenance of Residential Area through Real-Time Terrain Rendering

Climate change increases the frequency of localized heavy rains and typhoons. As a result, mountain disasters, such as landslides and earthworks, continue to occur, causing damage to roads and residential areas downstream. Moreover, large-scale civil engineering works, including dam construction, cause rapid changes in the terrain, which harm the stability of residential areas. Disasters, such as landslides and earthenware, occur extensively, and there are limitations in the field of investigation; thus, there are many studies being conducted to model terrain geometrically and to observe changes in terrain according to external factors. However, conventional topography methods are expressed in a way that can only be interpreted by people with specialized knowledge. Therefore, there is a lack of consideration for three-dimensional visualization that helps non-experts understand. We need a way to express changes in terrain in real time and to make it intuitive for non-experts to understand. In conventional height-based terrain modeling and simulation, there is a problem in which some of the sampled data are irregularly distorted and do not show the exact terrain shape. The proposed method utilizes a hierarchical vertex cohesion map to correct inaccurately modeled terrain caused by uniform height sampling, and to compensate for geometric errors using Hausdorff distances, while not considering only the elevation difference of the terrain. The mesh reconstruction, which triangulates the three-vertex placed at each location and makes it the smallest unit of 3D model data, can be done at high speed on graphics processing units (GPUs). Our experiments confirm that it is possible to express changes in terrain accurately and quickly compared with existing methods. These functions can improve the sustainability of residential spaces by predicting the damage caused by mountainous disasters or civil engineering works around the city and make it easy for non-experts to understand.

Mountain Disasters and Rescue Mechanism in Nepal

Geographically, Nepal is divided into three regions, namely; the Terai, the hills, and the mountains. Nepal is prone to many types of disasters due to the various causes and one of the main causes is its geographic setting. Some disasters and hazards are prevalent to all over the country, some are area specific. Mountain and high altitude hazards are unique in nature and have distinct features and they pose several challenges for the rescue and relief operations. Disasters in mountain regions of Nepal have multi-dimensional effects on human life, property and the environment. The paper analyzes the mountain disasters, their nature and their impacts. It also focuses on the institutional as well as legal arrangements regarding disaster rescue. For this purpose, a qualitative descriptive and analytical method is applied to achieve the desired objectives of the study. This paper depends upon the secondary source of data available in several works of literature; journal articles, books, news articles, government reports, and websites. The paper finds that the frequencies of mountain disasters are low in comparison to other parts of Nepal, but they are diverse and complex. There are institutional and legal mechanisms for disaster risk reduction, but they are not adequate to respond mountain disasters effectively. All security agencies along with private sectors involving in mountain search and rescue operations do not have sufficient mountain-specific rescue units, training, and logistics.

Community-based Mountain Disaster Risk Management during Emergency Evacuation Process: Evidence from China

<p>The frequent occurrences of mountain disasters have posed a huge threat to the safety of life and property of settlement residents, which bring serious challenges to the post-disaster reconstruction and sustainable development of the affected area, especially in countryside resort areas. The countryside resort areas are populated with tourists whose risk perception and risk behaviours against mountain hazards are unpredictable, which has made the evacuation difficult or even worsened the situation when mountain hazards occur. How to evacuate evacuees to safety in mountain disasters is an important issue for disaster emergency management. By far, little attention has been given to emergency evacuation during mountain disasters in China. Based on mountain disaster events from 2008 to 2019, and 1385 households samples that obtained by stratified random sampling and questionnaire survey, this study has proved ‘Public Participation Monitoring and Warning System’ (PPMWS) is an essential tool to reduce related deaths. Furthermore, the roles and interfaces of different stakeholders in emergency evacuation process are discussed for the purpose to find out the unforeseen circumstances and vulnerable spots. The results show that the farmhouse owners and monitoring personnels play the key roles in emergency evacuation process. The evacuation model led by monitoring personnels is summarized and feasible measures to reduce risks and casualties of mountain disasters are proposed and applied in Longmenshan Town, Pengzhou, Sichuan. The results of this study will improve the efficiency of evacuation and provide scientific support for mountain disaster risk management in mountainous area.</p>

Evaluation of Residential Environment before and after Wenchuan Earthquake in Weizhou Town

5·12" Wenchuan earthquake resulted in a large number of secondary mountain disasters, serious damage to ecological environment and cultural landscapes. By building evaluation index system of residential environment, the paper compares to residential environment before and after Wenchuan earthquake in Weizhou town.