BSS, Chittagong :
The Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) has been working on an ultramodern technology based project aiming at advance forecast of any landslide in the city.
CDA has been working as the coordinator of the one year research project tilted “Developing Dynamic Web”, financed by USAID and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), America.
The cautionary signal of any landslide would be forecast at least five days ahead firstly through website and subsequently through Short Message Service (SMS) to the concerned people, the CDA sources said.
Kathmandu based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMD has already started working on the project on the basis of Geographic Information System.
The CDA sources said a six-member team of experts from home and abroad has been working on the project in order to lessen the loss of lives and properties resulted from any landslide in the hilly areas of the city.
The members of the team are – Prof Dr Tahmid Malik Al-Hussaini of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Prof Dr Ekua Tahuta of Tokyo University, Japan, Prof Dr David Alexander and PhD researcher Bayes Ahmed of University College of London, UK, Prof M Shahinur Rahman of BUET and Sharmin Ara of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET).
The team has already identified 57 locations in the city where landslides have occurred at different times and they have been making a research paper on the findings.
Besides developing a web-based pre-alarming system about landslide, the team would also work on change of land use, climate change, analysis of relation with landslide triggered by rainfall, analysis of the reasons related to landslide sensitivity and preparing proposals for lessening risks of landslide.
The landslide alarming system would be kept in the website which would update with the possibility of rainfall while the website would show if there is any chance of landslide in the city three to five days before any ensuing disaster and send alarming message to the concerned people through mobile SMS.
Several hundred people were killed in different landslides in the city in last few years while landslides occur almost every year during monsoon in the city.
CDA sources said the project would help reduce loss of lives and damages of properties in the city related to landslide incidents.
