Practice Note guidelines for landslide risk management

Slope instability occurs in many parts of urban and rural Australia and often impacts on housing, roads, railways and other development. This has been recognised by many local government authorities, and others, and has led to the requirement by many local government councils for stability assessments prior to allowing building development.

In 2000, the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS) published “Landslide Risk Management Concepts and Guidelines” (AGS 2000). Since then there have been many published papers and discussion which have progressed Landslide Risk Management (LRM) in particular and risk management in general. As a consequence, AGS considered it appropriate to develop more comprehensive guidelines for practitioners and regulators involved in LRM.

This Practice Note Guidelines for Landslide Risk Management (the Practice Note) and its Commentary (AGS 2007d) are one part of a series of three guidelines related to LRM that have been prepared by AGS with funding under the National Disaster Mitigation Programme (NDMP). That programme has been introduced by the Australian Government to fund disaster mitigation, addressing hazards such as flooding, bushfires and landslides.

The associated guidelines which should be read in conjunction with the Practice Note are:

• AGS (2007a) “Guideline for Landslide Susceptibility, Hazard and Risk Zoning for Land Use Planning”.
• AGS (2007e) “Australian GeoGuides for Slope Management and Maintenance”.