Research Impact

1. Basic Research

The basic research methodology we continue to develop in the context of landslide risk reduction has been recognised as having a wide impact across both the environmental and engineering disciplines by the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, UK with the award in 2007 of the Trevethick Prize for the paper:

Anderson MG and Holcombe EA 2006 Community based landslide risk reduction Proceedings Institution of Civil Engineers, Engineering Sustainability, 159, 23-30.

Institution of Civil Engineers award ceremony 2007

2. Technology Transfer

As a forerunner to the full implementation of the QUESTA software, GIS-based search and query software has been designed to integrate road-cut slope information of all kinds [geotechnical. slope failure details, maintenance records etc],

Dr Liz Holcombe installing software systems for the Government of St Lucia

 This technology has been installed within a Government Ministry in St Lucia West Indies. The success of this technology transfer .is given by the fact that this software is now the subject of further cross-Ministry development under a 2 year grant programme

3. Community Engagement

We have, through the MoSSaiC programme, organised two Caribbean regional meetings bringing together all stakeholders involved in the programme to share experience, best practice and set agendas. These workshops were supported financially by the British High Commission, St Lucia, West Indies.

The entre MoSSaiC programme is Community- based with the deliberate intent of involving Community participation throughout the process [ Holcombe EA & Anderson MG. in press. Implementation of Community-Based Landslide Hazard Mitigation Measures: the role of stakeholder engagement in sustainable project scale-up. Sustainable Development;Anderson MG & Holcombe EA. 2006. Purpose driven public sector reform: the need for within-Government capacity build for the management of slope stability in communities [MoSSaiC] in the Caribbean. Environmental Management 37, 1, 15-29.]

4. Science into Policy

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States [OECS]. The landside risk reduction approach we have developed has been mainstreamed into the2008-2012 OECS Disaster Risk Reduction Programme.

5. Economic Impact

The impact of the Landslide risk reduction approach we have developed has been benchmarked against the cost of community relocation in the Eastern Caribbean. Based on the Black Mallet slide in St Lucia, the cost of mitigation works undertaken in the Caribbean runs at ~2% of potential community relocation cost. Additionally, the completion of works to date indicates such slopes to be stable against a 1 in 100 year 14 day rainfall event. Work to more comprehensively assess the economic impact of the interventions is currently underway. This highly positive economic impact has been recognised within the region and is a reason for the inclusion of the MoSSaiC methodology within Regional Disaster Risk reduction Programmes.