The indispensable role of resilience in rational landslide risk management for social sustainability

Abstract

Landslide disasters reflect the conflict between human society and the natural environment, posing challenges to the sustainable development of mountain regions. Identification of potential landslides, estimation of the degree of damage and potential losses of elements at risk, and control of the loss are the major tasks of landslide risk management. Resilience is defined as a social system’s comprehensive abilities to cope with disasters, including the abilities to prepare, anticipate, preserve, absorb, respond, resist, recover, mitigate, learn, and adapt. As an indispensable role, resilience enables more rational landslide risk management for social sustainability. However, quantitative landslide risk management does not pay sufficient attention to the role of resilience. Hence, in this paper, the role of resilience in a landslide risk management framework is systematically discussed. A quantitative landslide risk management framework consists of hazard analysis, exposure analysis, risk estimation, risk evaluation, and risk control. In hazard analysis, resilience assessment could help identify potential landslides that could cause significant damage due to the poor resilience of the elements at risk. Resilience assessment in exposure analysis might aid in identifying the most vulnerable elements or regions to certain landslides. Consideration of resilience in risk estimation aids in the calculation of indirect losses and improves the results of direct losses analysis. In risk evaluation, resilience as a disaster-coping ability will impact the social system's landslide risk tolerance threshold. Enhancing resilience is an essential strategy to reduce the vulnerability of social systems. We also proposed that the efficient use of risk information will increase the accuracy of landslide resilience assessments.