landslide hazard. A core feature of the MoSSaiC approach is that it seeks to ensure that all those participating in the program have as clear an understanding of the fundamental science of landslide processes as possible. Shared technical understanding encourages ownership of landslide mitigation solutions by both government and community. The first step in the management of landslide risk is to define the scope of the project and correctly identify the form of the landslide risk. The landslide risk reduction and management process will only be successful if landslides are understood in terms of their underlying mechanisms and triggers. Understanding landslide processes and potential triggering mechanisms • ensures that any landslide risk assessment is scientifically informed, • ensures that any proposed landslide hazard management strategies are appropriate to the specific local landslide hazard, • determines if a MoSSaiC-style drainage intervention will actually address the landslide hazard, • increases the ability of those implementing the project to justify the landslide hazard reduction measures, • helps build confidence within the community that the fundamental causes of the landslide hazard are being tackled, and • encourages a holistic and strategic approach to delivering effective landslide hazard reduction measures. The content of this chapter is designed to be accessible to policy makers, project managers, practitioners, community contractors, and community members; however, it is likely to be project managers and expert practitioners who take the lead in communicating the science. Milestone 3: Presentation made to MoSSaiC teams on landslide processes and slope stability software
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Chapter 4. Selecting Communities This chapter describes the community selection process and provides a framework for identifying areas where slopes are susceptible to landslides, the exposure and vulnerability of communities to these potential landslide events, and hence the overall landslide risk. The aim is to develop a prioritized list of communities for the implementation of landslide hazard reduction measures using the MoSSaiC approach. Policy makers and project managers need to coordinate on community selection to ensure that there is a transparent process the MCU can endorse. Failure in this regard can lead to unintended consequences such as nonselected communities seeking political redress, vocal individuals being given a platform to promote related agendas, and in extreme cases, the demotivation of the MCU due to the lack of a robust decision-making process. This chapter is designed to help the MCU avoid these issues to the extent possible. The sophistication of the methods used will depend on local data and software availability, and the level of expertise of the government task team involved. Practitioners with knowledge of local landslide issues, of digital mapping methods, or of assessing community vulnerability will be able to provide valuable guidance in this task. The outputs could range from a simple prioritized list of communities to a detailed landslide risk map for a region or country. Whatever the method used, community selection should be justifiable in terms of the science and rationale underpinning the landslide susceptibility assessment and vulnerability of the communities. After the communities have been selected, the mapping task team seeks to assemble the most detailed maps available for these communities. These maps form the basis for the community-based landslide hazard and drainage mapping exercise described in chapter 5. Milestone 4: Process for community selection agreed upon and communities selected