This paper is translated from the academic investigation and information exchange between China Geological Survey and the United States Geological Survey.

By p.l.gori1s.p.jeer2l.m.highland 3

Wei Yumei 4 translated Zhu Rulie 4 proofreading.

(1 USGS, Reston, Virginia, USA; American Planning Association, Chicago, Illinois, USA; USGS, Denver, Colorado, USA; Institute of Hydrogeological Engineering Geological Technology and Methods, China Geological Survey, Baoding, Hebei, 07 105 1)

Land use planners shoulder the important task of reducing the loss of debris flow disaster. On this basis, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the American Planning Association (APA) made a strategic plan to provide local planners with information about landslides and mudslides, aiming at making planners consider this information in the decision-making process. The core content of strategic deployment includes three parts: planning guide, training and technical support. At present, the US Geological Survey (USGS) is implementing this strategy; As a supporter, the American Planning Association (APA) has begun to use the guide and communicate and exchange information with its members. This initiative may become a useful example worthy of emulation by other countries.

Landslide and debris flow disaster, land use planning, natural disaster

1 Introduction

It is estimated that landslides (including mudslides) in the United States cause 2559 deaths and economic losses of 3.6 billion US dollars (200 1 currency) every year. A rainstorm or an earthquake may cause hundreds of landslides at any time, thus causing huge losses in a short time. In the United States, the areas with the most serious losses caused by mudslides are Mount Chia, Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast in Apara, as well as Puerto Rico and Hawaii. In recent years, there have been several serious mudslides in the United States: 1985, a large-scale mudslide with the largest number of deaths in American history occurred in southern Puerto Rico, resulting in 129 deaths; 1983 The mudslide with the greatest economic loss in American history occurred in Jizhen, Utah, causing a loss of 6 billion US dollars (200 1 currency); In 1982 ~ 1983 and 1983 ~ 1984, due to the influence of El Nino, large-scale landslides occurred in the whole western United States, including California, Washington, Utah, Nevada and Idaho, which caused property losses, traffic and communication disruptions and countless others. The latest catastrophic event was triggered by the El Nino storm 1997 ~ 1998, which triggered thousands of landslides in the San Francisco Bay Area, resulting in direct losses of public and personal property exceeding1500 million dollars. Because of the huge impact of landslide disasters, the direct and indirect losses are often cross-regional, and it is impossible for a single country or administrative region to prepare the necessary resources to alleviate disasters or deal with emergencies. The losses caused by landslides have gone beyond the scope of local and some states and become the focus of national attention.

American government officials, especially state managers, began to look for countermeasures to reverse this unfavorable situation in the face of the increasingly serious losses caused by landslides. 1999, the U.S. Congress decided that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the authoritative organization in the field of landslide disaster, and is responsible for providing geoscience information to the competent departments of the U.S. government and other departments. Therefore, a report entitled "National landslide disaster mitigation strategy: loss reduction framework" was submitted to Congress. One suggestion in the report is that the United States should take some disaster reduction measures for non-building buildings to reduce the losses caused by landslides (including mudslides). For example, in terms of land use, it is required to conduct a detailed landslide disaster assessment before planning and using land.

In the United States, land development decisions are mostly decided by local governments, not only the layout of local buildings, but also the location of public facilities such as roads, parks and schools. Local governments in the United States have their own comprehensive land use plans, including detailed land use policies. Land use planners, that is, planners and managers of land use planning, play a key role in the process of land development and utilization. According to the US Geological Survey, land planners are very important to implement non-construction measures to alleviate landslides and mudslides. The most important measure is that local land planners should organically incorporate the information of landslide disasters into the planning process.

The US Geological Survey cooperates with the American Planning Association to train land use planners.

At the beginning of the implementation of the national landslide disaster reduction strategy, the US Geological Survey first cooperated with the American Planning Association and spent two years compiling a manual for land use planners in the field of landslide disasters. The guide includes geological knowledge of landslide and debris flow disasters, and its purpose is not to train planners into geologists and geotechnical engineers, but to increase their understanding and mastery of landslide disaster knowledge.

The US Geological Survey has long noticed the importance of cooperation with other professional groups in society, which is a way to transmit disaster and other earth science information to other professionals in society. This cooperation between USGS and the American Planning Association is not the first time. There are 30 thousand people engaged in land use planning in the United States, which is also the reason why the US Geological Survey cooperates with the Planning Association. In 1980s, the US Geological Survey and the Planning Association jointly published two planners' manuals: Landslide Disaster Mitigation: A Planner's Guide and Earthquake Risk: A Planner's Guide. The task of the US Geological Survey is to provide "reliable and correct information related to people, describe and understand the earth, … minimize the loss of life and property caused by natural disasters, … improve and protect the quality of life; Contribute to the development of economy and nature "(US Geological Survey, 1996), which supplements and perfects the task of the American Planning Association. One of the tasks of the American Planning Association is to provide innovative and effective planning implementation information for the public and local planners, planning consultants, urban planning officials and land users. The American Planning Association tries its best to do a wide range of business, including periodicals, newsletters and special reports called "planning consulting service reports", to provide feasible solutions to the daily problems faced by planners. Recently, planning consulting services have solved two difficult problems: the planning of hillside development and the planning of post-disaster recovery and reconstruction.

The latest research and investigation show that most land use designers in the United States do not fully consider natural disasters when planning (Institute of Business and Life Safety, 2002), let alone landslides and mudslides. As the current local rules and regulations on the above disasters, they are often formulated after a series of events or after the public has suffered many losses. Even now, many local governments in the United States have not put non-construction disaster reduction measures in their due position. There are many reasons: planners in most parts of the United States lack sufficient technical information when making plans and regulations to minimize losses; Even if disaster information is available, many local governments do not have enough methods to confirm, compile, study and coordinate it into land use planning, and there are no relevant rules and regulations to follow. Even in some states, local governments have no right to regard these disasters as one of the normal restrictions on land use and development.

To help meet the above needs, the guide provides planners with technical information and effective strategies, including case studies. The guide summarizes the existing regulations, experiences and new methods for dealing with existing plans and future new plans, and takes effective steps for local governments in different stages of land planning formulation and review. Most related treatment strategies are formulated according to the macroscopic natural science attributes of debris flow.

In order to make the guide available to all users of planning consulting services, the American Planning Association has increased the publication of the guide, held professional training meetings, increased relevant university research courses, tried its best to provide consulting and guidance services for local planners, and established a website. By March, 2003, a series of measures have been implemented, and the guide has spread all over 1600 planning institutions, consulting companies and scientific research institutes related to planning consulting services. In addition, http://www.planing.org/landslides can also purchase the guide through the website of the American Planning Association.

3 landslide disaster and planning guide

The Guide to Landslide Disaster Planning originated from a seminar held by the US Geological Survey in the winter of 2000. The participants included representatives of the American Planning Association and well-known land use planners from local governments, universities and the private sector. Participants studied the framework of the project, including how to use the guide to train planners on landslide disaster knowledge and how to reduce social and personal losses caused by such disasters. Participants believed that in view of the complicated planning procedures and landslide disasters in the United States, both of them would bring challenges to the implementation of the project. At the same time, participants also suggested that the guide should be aimed at all landslides, fast and slow landslides caused by geological and human activities, and the impact of landslides on existing and future development.

Delegates stressed the practical necessity of the guide, because although the US Geological Survey and other federal agencies have developed a lot of successful technologies to identify and mitigate landslide disasters, their information is rarely transmitted to planners and other officials of cities, towns, counties, states or local governments to play their due roles. Delegates also suggested that the Advisory Committee should be involved in designing the scope and style of project publications.

The cooperation between USGS and American Planning Association began in August 2000. With the assistance of USGS, the American Planning Association is responsible for publishing guides, holding academic seminars and training for planners, providing online consultation and guidance services, and adding university planning courses. According to the information provided by the US Geological Survey, the American Planning Association has trained land use planners, scholars and advisory committee members who are responsible for designing and writing guides and other publications.

Another difficulty of the project is to meet the different needs of American planners. In order to ensure the adaptability of the guide, the first task of the project is to determine the needs and capabilities of planners and planning departments in the United States. The responsibility of planning varies with its scope, purpose and intention, and the responsibility of planning varies with different levels of government. For example, local governments make long-term and public plans, and they adopt land use management methods such as zoning and subdivision of plots to implement land use resolutions within their jurisdiction; The state government entrusts the local government with the responsibility of land use planning through legislation; The government of each administrative region plans and evaluates the impact of land development and utilization resolutions on its own administrative region; The planner's role within the above responsibilities is to judge the landslide disaster and decide whether to allow development. Therefore, the project must provide comprehensive guidance for the huge difference between planners and government officials.

After determining the needs of planners, the Advisory Committee, the American Planning Association and the US Geological Survey, after deliberation and research, named the guide "Landslide Disaster and Planning: Integrating Geological Disaster Planning into Planning Procedures". The first chapter of the guide summarizes the geological disasters in the United States, and the following chapters are as follows:

3. 1 Landslide information in planning

The purpose of using landslide information by local planners (various geoscience technologies that can be used for local land planning):

(1) Determine the maximum limit and optimal utilization of land in the stage of land use deployment (reduce the possibility of landslide and vulnerability in the future);

(2) Formulating local development policies with controllable modes (avoiding development in risky areas);

(3) Evaluate the building, geotechnical engineering and geological data according to the standard of repeated local audit (only the development plan that can resist disasters can be approved).

Technical information about landslides (current situation, sensitive factors, mitigation measures, land use adaptability, etc.). The planning process obtained before always loses its effectiveness in the development process of landslide disaster areas; Now, such information can only be collected after a disaster. Before the disaster occurs, planners should first allocate the land use in high-risk areas, marginal areas and safe areas appropriately, so as to develop the disaster body continuously and steadily. In the event of a disaster, planners will be able to minimize the loss of life and property.

Some disaster early warning technologies have the same effect on the existing development schemes of known landslide areas and the future development schemes of unknown areas. When arduous disaster reduction measures are taken (such as how much money is needed to support steep slopes to protect buildings), it is possible to stabilize disaster bodies.

3.2 Development of management tools

The development and management of any local government in the United States must follow the following rules:

(1) comprehensive planning (also called master planning in some states): planning should include the use of maps, development policies, and interest disputes in special areas (such as residential units, transportation units, natural disaster units, etc.). ) involves the public and society and its influence.

(2) Zoning standards (including the development codes of subdivided plots and other land): the land use and structure in all public areas can be controlled.

(3) Building regulations (building standards for minimum collective buildings): used to control special types of buildings.

(4) Urban transformation planning of metropolitan capital (public infrastructure investment): reasonably allocate the annual capital increment of each project planning for more than 5 years.

(5) Other related methods.

The first step and task in comprehensive planning is to issue policy documents to make local people realize that landslide disaster is a social problem, which is related to public health, welfare and safety. These disaster risks can be avoided and minimized. In the management and development of landslide disaster areas, this should be put in the first place of public interest.

Then, planners study the local landslide hazard map, which can make the basic land development planning avoid disasters. However, landslide maps are not everywhere. Natural and man-made disasters such as wetlands, fires and floods in the planning area are also indispensable research areas for planners. By combining the existing landslide information with the adopted scheme and the sensitive areas marked on the map, local planners can make a ban according to the landslide disaster. However, there are differences among states. What should be done in the implementation process? There is a general principle here: firstly, technical experts (usually registered engineering geologists or geotechnical engineers) survey and confirm the landslide scope, and all risks must be described in detail in the survey technical report; The precise boundary of the disaster can be marked or not, but a general range should be marked for the sensitive area of landslide and the adjacent area that may be affected; At the same time, it is also necessary to point out where further detailed technical research is needed in these fields. Then, based on this information, planners can determine the land use, structure type and public investment in different regions.

Zoning standards are the factors that represent the rationality of administrative divisions (such as residential areas and commercial areas). In addition, there is the maximum development density (such as the ratio of residential units per mu to land or building area). However, the limitations of typical environmental factors, such as landslide disasters, must be determined in the zoning regulations applicable to the whole administrative region, and additional development standards should be stipulated in areas restricted by environmental factors. A landslide disaster may span several administrative divisions, and the land use function of each administrative division may be different, and the administrative districts involved in land use may be further restricted (or prohibited).

Other common effective management methods include building regulations, urban renewal planning and development guidelines. In different stages of the whole planning and development approval process, each management mode plays its unique role in avoiding landslide disaster areas. However, the biggest controversy may occur outside the planning department, that is, the risk areas of buildings have not been revoked or abolished early in the development process, and the final protection measures prepared for them only work for those buildings that will be built in the future. For example, it can even be designed as public open space, roads, ancillary buildings and similar activity facilities and buildings. The above management measures can ensure that these buildings meet the minimum standards. Finally, in the urban renewal plan (that is, the public expenditure plan for infrastructure), areas where social activities can be further developed can be marked. For example, when optimizing metropolitan reconstruction planning fund projects, public investment in landslide-stricken areas can be minimized through risk (or disaster) assessment.

3.3 Geographic Information System Method

Using modern and effective advanced technology for management has become an effective investment in the implementation of comprehensive planning by local governments in the United States. Modern technology ensures the consistency and rationality of policy implementation. Landslide disasters are controlled by many factors, which are dynamic and constantly changing. It is ideal and reasonable to use a layer of GIS as a tool to master the control factors of landslide disasters. Most local governments have applied GIS to land division, land use, zoning, environment and public safety. They are logical extensions of GIS, just like those carried out by disaster layers. The guide lists several examples of comprehensive land development review methods.

Another advantage of GIS is that it can be generated when integrating maps and data of other scales. For example, the federal government landslide map of special projects in the region can be integrated into local planning documents under certain conditions; Similarly, some state governments can provide landslide maps to their counties (the largest administrative units below the state). Dealing with maps from different sources is an ideal function of GIS. In the upcoming training project (part of this project), we will introduce the comprehensive method of establishing landslide disaster GIS layers by using different data, and incorporate these GIS layers into daily planning analysis, zoning system and small land review, as well as establishing local pre-disaster disaster mitigation plans for post-disaster recovery projects. In a word, the established disaster layer information is the basis of other planning functions.

3.4 Case analysis

Many contents in the Guide are based on the existing practice, from which we can also find out the key points of the main problems in the field of practice; However, the main purpose of case study is to let people know what they should and should not do as experienced planners in landslide disaster. In each case, we analyze the special environment of the case and the experience that other planners can learn from.

In this study, more than 200 special disasters were reviewed. According to the events or series of events, the main results of the events and the major changes taken by the post-disaster society in the planning process, they were divided into 25 types and briefly summarized. We found that in some cases, although the disaster was huge, no major changes were made in planning and law; In other cases, even a small landslide affecting a few houses may lead to great changes in local development policies. We have made an in-depth analysis of five major cases in landslide disaster literature, which are:

(1) verdes, palos, California: After this landslide, California set up a unique unofficial area managed by the government, called the geological disaster elimination zone, to encourage private owners to invest to alleviate the landslide disaster.

(2) Portola Valley, California: Due to this landslide, California became the first state in the United States to adopt a comprehensive evaluation system in planning and zoning regulations to avoid landslide disasters. Measures to minimize the landslide disaster in Portola Valley have been incorporated into local management measures.

(3) Cincinnati, Ohio: It is one of the first cities in the United States to rely on local non-profit organizations to protect unsafe development hillsides. The hillside protection in Cincinnati is also combined with beautification, with the same goal except disaster. Cincinnati relies on the zoning system to implement its policies.

(4) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh is a big city, and it achieves the goal of reducing landslide disasters by comprehensively utilizing public land. Pittsburgh relies on public investment, GIS and planning to implement geological disaster policy.

(5) kelso, Washington: This is a recent case, which can be used for reference in disaster risk sharing. After a landslide occurred in a certain area of kelso, the local government required most residents in this city to pay the insurance premium for disaster events from now on, so as to share the risks borne by minority social groups.

3.5 Other relevant information

In order to improve the interest and cognitive level of planners, the guide contains a large number of photos of mudslides, maps of disaster situation and sensitivity, and examples of local laws and regulations. Moreover, in order to help planners solve the needs and legal requirements within their planning authority, the Guide also provides relevant information of each state for planners' reference. In addition, the glossary, annotated bibliography and list of state and federal institutions attached to the guide can not only make planners and their groups consciously know more about landslides and other disasters, but also serve as a reference and guide when encountering natural disasters.

4. Current and future efforts to win the support of land use planners

APA and USGS held three seminars on landslide hazards during APA national conferences in new york (2000), New Orleans, Louisiana (200 1) and Chicago, Illinois (2002). The seminar attracted many planners and planning officials, who all wanted to know more information and methods to reduce planning defects. The author of the Guide also learned from the participants about the obstacles encountered by planners in implementing disaster reduction methods and what useful contents are in the Guide. During the 26th Annual Conference on Natural Disaster Research and Application held in Boulder, Colorado, USA, USGS and American Psychological Association also held a seminar on "Reducing Landslide Disaster". The purpose of the seminar is to clarify the natural disasters faced by the APA/USGS landslide project and the problems that the society urgently needs to solve. Planners from Seattle, Washington, California and Honduras exchanged experiences on the recent mudslide disaster at the seminar. APA also collected other information about landslide disaster and planning in the landslide and debris flow project, such as ① the training of land use planners after hurricane Mitch in the central United States; (2) Design a training model for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help emergency personnel plan and mitigate the losses caused by all natural disasters.

The guide was released at the national meeting of the American Psychological Association held in Denver, Colorado in March 2003, and a seminar on the use of the guide was held on the spot. In addition, a special meeting was held for federal planners and a visit was made to the National Landslide Information Center in the office area of the US Geological Survey near Golden.

The guide will be published on the APA landslide website in http://www.planning.org/landslides,, from which you can link to the website of the US Geological Survey: http://landslides.usgs.gov. APA will continue to provide consulting services, and USGS National Landslide Information Center is responsible for using the guide to answer questions raised by land use planners. After the publication of Landslide Planning Guide, a series of articles reflecting the characteristics of different aspects of landslide planning will be published in journals and newsletters sponsored by APA, which will provide practical university planning courses.

5 conclusion

The cooperation between USGS and APA has improved the planner's understanding of landslide disaster. Whether local governments, state governments and the private sector can successfully use the information and suggestions in the guide can only be proved by waiting time. However, the prospect of success is optimistic, because the guide has been written by many USGS scientists and APA planners, and it covers the planning operations of all different levels of government agencies and the private sector. In addition, the guide can also be used as a resource tool for further study and research by planners. As the project is implemented in various ways, including training seminars, university courses and various forms of periodicals and electronic media, the results will make the concepts and unique information in the Guide widely and deeply disseminated.

Although this guide is written for people engaged in land use planning in the United States, it can also be used as a reference by planners in other countries who have also suffered from landslides and mudslides. Moreover, with the support of APA and other social professional organizations, USGS compiled guidelines and conducted internal exchanges and training to reduce the loss of landslides and mudslides. This practice may be a useful reference for other countries.