Christopher Puglia
Direction: Prof. Michel Jaboyedoff, Dr. Karen Sudmeier-Rieux, Dr. Marc-Henri Derron, MSc. Pierrick Nicolet
The purpose of this thesis is to explore the socio-economic and technical issues linked to landslides management in Sanusiruwari VDC (Sindhupalchock district) and Namadi VDC (Ramechhap district), central Nepal.
In Nepal, hydropower development is in expansion as it is a possibility to largely improve the electricity network. In the study, they aim for Sanusiruwari project is to supply the national grid and for Namadi to provide energy to the whole community. Nevertheless, their construction caused landslides in both sites making necessary to control and stabilize them.
The first part of the study is technical and it is intended to examine the landslides with observations and photogrammetry to have more information about its possible evolution and to find out if the plants’ construction is the only cause. Then, the Vetiver (Vetiveria ziznioides) is used as stabilization measure in both sites which will reveal issues regarding their maintenances and efficiency.
The second part is social and was conducted with interviews, discussion and participatory risk mapping. As the managers and communities are different for both sites, risks management differed, with different approaches, implications, priorities and opinions in slopes stabilization and hydropower matters. Communities’ involvement is important in Namadi because the project want to share knowledge which is not the case for the other project in Sanusiruwari which is a private sector project. In spite of that, issues related notably to the landslide management will turn out similar.
