Landslides of Palestinian Region

Natural disasters are extreme sudden events caused by environmental and natural actors that take away the lives of many thousands of people each year and damage large amount of properties. They strike anywhere on earth, often without any warning. A risk maps of natural disaster are very useful to identify the places that might be adversely affected in the event of natural disaster. The earthquakes are one of natural disaster that have the greatest hazards and will cause loss of life and properties due to damaging the structures of building, dams, bridges. In addition, it will affect local geology and soil conditions. The site effects play an important role in earthquake risk because of its amplification or damping simulation. Another parameter in developing risk map is landslide, which is also one of the most important topics in site effect hazards. Palestine region has been suffering landslide hazards because of the topographical and geological conditions of this region. Most Palestine consists of mountainous area, which has great steep slopes and the type of soil is mainly grayish to yellowish silty clay (Marl Soil). Due to the above mentioned factors many landslides have been occurred from Negev south to the northern borders of Palestine. An example of huge and destruction landslide in a Palestine authority is the landslide in the White Mountain area in the city of Nablus, which occurred in 1997. The geotechnical and geophysical investigation as well as slope stability analysis should be considered in making landslide maps that are necessary to develop risk levels of the natural disaster. Landslides occurred in slopes that are created naturally or by human beings. Failure of soil mass occurs, and hence landslide of soil mass happen due to sliding of soil mass along a plane or curved surface. In general, the slopes become unstable when the shear stresses (driving force) generated in the soil mass exceed the available shearing resistance on the rupture surface. There are many factors which affect directly or indirectly the slope stability, the stability of a slope depends on the geometry and soil engineering properties which include geological, topography, climate, hydrologic conditions, weather and land use (human effects). There are many things that can be used to mitigate landslides disaster. The most important one is the control of the landslides by establishing landslide maps. Other methods such as geometrical, hydrological, mechanical and chemical methods would also be effective in mitigate landslides. Recently, due to the development of the technology in all aspects, a safe and economical design for slopes can be achieved easily.