Water Stewardship Information Sources

Citation Blais-Stevens, A and Hungr, O. 2008. Landslide hazards and their mitigation along the sea to sky corridor, British Columbia. In : J. Locat, D. Perret, D. Turmel, D. Demers et S. Leroueil, (2008). Comptes rendus de la 4e Conférence canadienne sur les géorisques: des causes à la gestion. Proceedings of the 4th Canadian Conference on Geohazards : From Causes to Management. Presse de l’Université Laval, Québec, 594 p.
Organization NRCAN
URL http://www.geohazard.ggl.ulaval.ca/evaluation/blais.pdf
Abstract/Description or Keywords The Sea to Sky Highway stretches 110 km from Horseshoe Bay to Pemberton, BC. Historically, the highway corridor has
been vulnerable to landslides. More than 18% of Canada’s total landslide related deaths (>600) have occurred along this
corridor. Over the last 150 years, hundreds of landslide events have been reported. A landslide inventory from newspaper
articles, geotechnical reports, and scientific articles has been compiled. The observed trend in landslide frequency has a
peak period during the 1980’s and 1990’s at approximately 40 events per decade. The early part of the trend is heavily
influenced by data censoring, due to an incomplete record prior to the 1980’s. In recent decades, the observed trend
indicates the positive effects of improved slope maintenance and landslide mitigation measures. This inventory documents
the geographical distribution, the types, and the impacts of landslides. The most abundant types of landslides are debris
flows and rock falls, which are highly concentrated in the southern part of the corridor. Certain individual landslide disasters
led to implementation of mitigation measures. Active protection structures were built and road safety measures were
introduced. Moreover, systematic mitigation of rock falls and the adoption of the Rockfall Hazard Rating System were
implemented by the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Highways. Thus, evolving mitigative measures since the 1970’s have
increased the safety of the population. There have been no reported fatal accidents caused by landslides in the corridor
since the early 1990’s. With increasing population density in the corridor, more attention should be paid to the potential for
high-magnitude low frequency landslide hazards.
Information Type Article
Regional Watershed Howe Sound & Sunshine Coast
Sub-watershed if known
Aquifer #
Comments
Project status complete
Contact Name Andree Blais-Stevens
Contact Email [email protected]