Mass Wasting In Taiwan

Mass wasting is an issue many places around the world have to deal with, some more than others.Taiwan is one of those countries that has a bit more to deal with when it comes to mass wasting.Taiwan has very big mountains with steep slopes so because of that and the amount of rain they usually getthey have a ton of mass waste, the earthquakes they frequently have don’t make the mass waste any betterand actually tend to make them worse themselves. An article by Chi-Wen Chen, Hitoshi Saito, and TakashiOguchi titled Rainfall Intensity-Duration Conditions for Mass Movements in Taiwan state that “Massmovements caused by rainfall events in Taiwan are analyzed during a 7-year period from 2006 to 2012.Data from the Taiwan Soil and Water Conservation Bureau reports were compiled for 263 mass movementevents, including 156 landslides, 91 debris flows, and 16 events with both landslides and debris flows.” This means within 7 years Taiwan had all of that mass waste happening within their country.

Taiwan currently has an I-D Threshold that can detect when a mass waste could occur. While it is not always accurate it is apple to at least tell when one may occur so people can be prepared for if it does occur. It does so by calculating the amount of rainfall and it’s duration to detect possible mass wastes. Chen, Saito and Oguchi state, “The I–D threshold for mass movements is identified on an I–D plot as the minimum rainfall total for which a mass movement could occur.”