Advancing Landslide Risk Registers Via the Geospatial Metamodel Approach: A Review

Abstract

According to the United Nations (UN) World Risk Index 2020, Malaysia is at high risk of natural catastrophes and is highly exposed to them, but has a low vulnerability to them. This is due to Malaysia's geographical location at the edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which makes it relatively secure from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Large-scale landslides continue to occur in the country, mainly during the monsoon season. Landslide disasters in Malaysia are managed by several entities, coordinated by The National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) where each entity has its particular landslide disaster management practices. Therefore, several concerns remain, such as inadequate documentation and decentralization of standards of procedure (SOP). This paper presents an implementation review of the current landslide risk register, focusing on the geospatial metamodel approach. A risk register is an active document that lists all the identified hazards in a region and the decisions taken to monitor and manage them. Initially, preliminary studies were conducted to identify the current practices of landslide disaster management in Malaysia. These include collecting geospatial data, such as LiDAR, aerial photographs (AP), existing landslide inventory maps, and SOPs for landslide non-structural mitigation activities. The geospatial metamodel consists of the concept and the relationship, which describes the domain with an additional geospatial element. To conclude, a risk register using the geospatial metamodel approach would enable NADMA to monitor and coordinate the landslide disaster management process more effectively.