Reduce landslides by planting gardens

Landslides, around the world, take a heavy toll on life and property every year. Indeed, they are one of the most significant contributors to aggregate national losses caused by natural disasters, both of property and lives. Therefore the monetary costs associated with landslides result from damages to structures, loss of land as well as loss of income accruing from the land, and disruption to communication routes. These also include the monetary cost associated with the loss of human and animal life.

In India, in the Himalayan region, landslides take place every year, and the nature and the factors, (natural or manmade) responsible for generating these landslides are indeed diverse. Seeing the increasing frequency and the monstrous affects of these disasters in India and the world every year, scientists have come up with a rather unique and simple idea to reduce the effects of landslides. And this is what they suggest.

Scientists and researchers at UNAM, National Autonomous University of Mexico claim, merely constructing more gardens could majorly reduce the effect of a landslide in your area. They suggest a technology in which the slopes of the roads could become monumental gardens, reducing the number of landslides.

Aracadio Monroy Ata, researcher at UNAM, has studied the procedures of a technique called hydroseeding that allows ‘green upholstery’ to populate the slopes bounding the roads. Which means planting green rocky gardens along the road will not only help in obtaining green areas but will also help in safeguarding the locality, given that the function of the plants (vegetation) is to retain the soil. If done during the rainy season the vegetation is established and plants seek to make roots, therefore growing without soil or in a steep slope.

Why without soil, is because this set up is entirely artificial. Currently in use in Mexico, hydroseeding allows plants to spread on rock surfaces; it contains seeds, moisture-retaining substances, adhesives and chemical fertilizers among other components. However effective, this technique has its own limitations of not being so environmental friendly, which is why scientists are working on the idea to make entirely ‘green’.

They are substituting the chemical products of the original technique for organic ones. For example, to retain moisture they have started to use sawdust or moss, instead of hydrogels; moreover, mycorrhiza (fungi) is being used, instead of chemical fertilizers. And to completely get rid of the adhesive, ‘Nopal’ (type of cactus) is being used in the plantation slopes.

“Really in technology, it’s about the people, getting the best people, retaining them, nurturing a creative environment and helping to find a way to innovate, save the planet and save humankind” – Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo.