Canadian expert to help RP prevent another landslide

A Canadian landslide expert is now in the country to help the Mine and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) to help in the government’s efforts in preventing another tragedy such as the Saint Bernard landslides in Southern Leyte last month.

In a report to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Ambassador Jose Brillantes said that internationally-recognized landslide expert, Dr. Stephen George Evans, of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, is now in the Philippines as part of the Canadian government’s assistance to the Philippines, following the destructive Leyte landslide.

Dr. Evans, who arrived in Manila last March 9, volunteered his services to the Philippine government and his travel here to the country was supported by the Research and Conference Fund (RCF) of Foreign Affairs Canada.

Brillantes said that during the seven-day visit to the Philippines, Dr. Evans and his research assistant, Mr. Rick Guthrie, will join the MGB at the landslide disaster area. Dr. Evans will prepare an analytical report of the landslide causes in the Philippines and provide authorities with a workshop on risk mitigation strategies against further landslides.

Dr. Evans is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo. He is a specialist in landslides and related processes. Using his multidisciplinary background in geomorphology, geotechnical engineering and engineering geology, Dr. Evans has investigated landslides and other geological hazards in Canada and overseas since 1982.

Dr. Evans’ research works, which resulted in over 100 publications, focused on catastrophic landslides (rock avalanches, debris avalanches, debris flows and flowslides), stability of quaternary volcanoes, mountain slope deformation, the magnitude and frequency of landslide occurrence, landslide hazard and risk assessment, and aspects of geotechnical response to climate change.

Recently, he has developed interest in the aetiology of landslide disasters, life loss models for landslides, and the use of historical date to quantify risk from landslides and other geological hazards.

He has been consulted for expert advice on a number of issues related to geological hazards including landslide-related train derailments in Canada, urban landslides in Algeria, earthquake-triggered landslides in Japan and El Salvador.