A Landslide Risk Rating System for Baguio, Philippines

This research formulates a Landslide Risk Rating System for the Greater Baguio area in the Philippines. It is hoped that the tool will be made a part of the physical/urban planning process when used by engineers and planners and used to address risks posed by landslides given the rapidly increasing concentration of population and the development of infrastructure and industry in the Baguio area as well as in other parts of the Philippines. This system describes the hazard through so called “hazard contributing factors” which in this case are bedrock geology, slope gradients and vegetation. This is then followed by characterizing risk through the “risk contributory factors”, which are population and land use. The analysis performed in this study is based on the specific attributes of the study area, namely: an area with relatively extreme topographic relief, underlain by variable bedrock geology, but without significant differences in amount of rainfall from one zone to another during a major precipitation event. Although this study and the proposed system are area-specific they have wider application. This is facilitated by emphasizing what is specifically local and indicating how adaptation to differing local conditions might be done.