SUMMARY

Landslide in the humid tropical regions and problem of its warning:
case studies in the provinces of Cao Bằng and Hà Giang, Việt Nam

Lê Đức An, Uông Đình Khanh, Võ Thịnh

In the humid tropical mountainous regions of Việt Nam in general, and of Cao Bằng and Hà Giang provinces in particular, landslides occur annually and concentrate mainly in the rainy season, causing serious losses of property and life.

Up to now, there are many researches concerning problems of landslide distribution and evolution, and risk assessment for mountainous areas in Bắc Bộ and Trung Bộ regions. These studies have shown places and areas of high risk of lanslide, and indicated the causes of these phenomena and proposed solutions for limiting them. In the past years (2000-2008), in Cao Bằng and Hà Giang provinces occurred several huge landslides. They often appear on the slopes of stream valleys of 1st to 3rd order, with a relative height of 100-300 m and close to the local base level of erosion. Scale and quantity of landslides depend also on the characteristics of vertical and horizontal dissection of regions.

On many lines of communication, landslides occurred strongly at the road sections cutting across slopes formed by metamorphic, terrigenous and volcano-terrigenous rocks crushed by faults and fissures, with a thick weathering crust of coarse-grained beds interbedded with clay, especially in high and steep talus.

Aiming to experimentally study for warning on the time-point of landslide occurrence by using the rainfall intensity, the authors have analyzed all rainfalls that have caused landslides (information from newspapers and local reports), as well as all heavy and very-heavy rainfalls during the period of 2000-2008 (according to data from main rain stations of the Hà Giang Province). It was found that the total quantity, the mean daily quantity and the biggest daily quantity of rainwater caused by storms causing landslides are all clearly higher than that of other normal heavy rainfalls. It was carried out in more detailed research into the evolution of rainfall causing landslides in Hà Giang Town (on 3 August, 2007) by using quantity of rainwater per every 6 hours, and establishement of a chart expressing the relationship between rainfall, landslides and rain time, to be able to refer to warning of the risk degree of heavy rainfalls in the region.

The authors preliminarily suggest a warning research procedure of the time-point of landslide occurrence by using rainfall intensity that includes three steps, such as statistic study, model study and warning study. This procedure is a suggestion necessary to continue experiment and supplement in order to apply in practice.

Người biên tập: TS. Ngô Gia Thắng