Northern provinces are warned of possible landslide and forest flood

The Department of Mineral Resources has issued a warning of possible landslide and forest flood over the next couple of days to the residents living in the mountainous areas of Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Phayao, and other northern provinces of Thailand.

Heavy precipitation continues to take place in many areas of Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Phayao, and travellers are warned to be more cautious as landslides may occur along certain routes.

Volunteers of the Mineral Resources Department have been assigned to keep a close eye on the situation at all times, so warnings can be issued to relevant agencies promptly.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 08 August 2006

In my past life I owned a company that specalised in landslide monitoring, and talked to DMR about this subject many times. I have been retired now for almost 3 years, but to my knowledge nothing is being done.

It is possible to predict when a slope is failing or about to fail. DMR was implementing a several year process of installing a network of groundwater monitoring wells and not much else. This does not really do much for slope stability monitoring.

They need to do more than issue such verbal warnings, and "leeping a close eye" on the situation.