Introduction

The incidents of landslides, other mass movements and flash flooding have accounted for considerable damage, economic and human losses in countries in Asia during the past few years. Increasing anthropogenic activities in the hilly areas and mountain slopes add to the increased vulnerability of landslide and associated disaster events. However, little efforts have been made by the stakeholder institutions to understand the social and technical dimensions and to develop cost effective landslide mitigation solutions. Information needed for implementation of such initiatives aimed at understanding the social and technical dimensions, have not yet been fully taken up by the professionals in developing countries of Asia. The reason may well be the inadequate involvement and encouragement by key players of developmental planning and implementation to obtain the services of technical professionals in decision making and also reluctance to integrate risk based mitigation practices in the process of development planning and environmental protection.

Moreover, the service sector such as human settlement development, water, power and road development authorities do not have adequate knowledge in landslide mitigation work and when the planning decisions are taken, the landslide proneness and issues related to reduction of impacts in generally not considered. In most cases, the impact of landslides is visible when the services are disrupted, and again due to lack of provision of sufficient maintenance and repairs budget, the developed of the affected area(s) are impeded. Hence, the traditional ways of imparting training to the three groups, viz. The landslide mitigation professionals, service sectors and decision-makers will not be effective. A more effective approach would be to discuss the issues in a comprehensive manner encouraging exchange of knowledge, through face-to-face contact, /discussion in capacity building and knowledge management.

Therefore, ADPC in collaboration with Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) has developed the program for Regional Capacity Enhancement for Landslide Impact Mitigation (RECLAIM) with the idea of promoting a dialogue between decision makers and professionals about the theoretical and practical aspects and issues related to landslide hazard mitigation. The program, which is funded by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is a three-year program involving Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Objectives of RECLAIM

The long-term objective of the project is

• To reduce the landslide disaster vulnerability of human settlements, infrastructure, and critical facilities in the targeted countries of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand, possibly to be extended to Bangladesh

The short-term objectives are:

• To provide target countries with a cadre of specialists and decision makers with up-to-date knowledge of landslide disaster mitigation practices and to integrate this knowledge in routine development work initiated by national and local governments. More, specifically, the objective is:
  - To provide the scientists and geotechnical engineers involved in landslide studies and services a forum for academic discussion on landslide disaster mitigation,
  - To promote better practices and models among the target countries,
  - To facilitate the introduction of new concepts into the land use planning process,
  - To promote a participatory approach of all stakeholders including decision makers in the search for solutions for current problems in landslide disaster mitigation,
  - To promote sustainable development and environmental protection through landside disaster impact reduction and integration of concepts of risk-based mitigation planning at all levels.
  
  
• An increased collaboration between Norwegian and Asian institutions in jointly developing cost effective methodologies for landslide risk mitigation and training at national level for enhancement of capacity of national partners, which will result in more joint programs and opportunities for sharing of experience and learning applications in the subject area.

It is expected that this approach will help to enrich the capacity as well bring about changes in attitude and practice in promoting the collaborative efforts in landslide risk management through building the partnerships between professionals and decision making community.