Swiss experts develop landslide warning system in Georgia
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International experts are working in northern Georgia’s mountainous area to design a landslide warning system that will give notice to the population of an impending natural disaster.
This early warning system aimed to give adequate notice to locals, and give them time to vacate the area before the natural disaster hit.
The area suffered from two major landslides last year, which claimed the lives of seven people and caused major damage to the North-South gas pipeline that transported natural gas from Russia to Armenia thorough Georgia.
Earlier today, Georgia’s Environment Protection Minister Elguja Khokrishvili and Swiss experts travelled to the town of Kazbegi near the Georgia-Russia border to monitor the ongoing natural processes at the Devdorak Glacier, a valley glacier on the northeastern slope of Mount Kazbek in the Caucasus, near the Georgian Military Road.
Swiss experts monitor Devdorak Glacier; Photo by the press office of Georgia's Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources Management.
The glacier is 7.2km long, about 300m wide and has an area of 4.1sqkm. It ends at an elevation of 2,257m. Its surface is dissected by icefalls and fissures and is partially covered by moraine.
The Swiss experts were expected to research the area and then design an alarm notification system, which could provide a few minutes warning of impending landslides.
In this respect, an agreement was signed by Georgia’s National Environmental Agency and the Swiss company GEOTEST.
The experts will choose several locations to install early warning devices that will take environmental readings and monitor results, and when required, notify Georgia’s National Environment Agency about a possible landslide, which will give time for people to evacuate the danger area and ensure safe travel along Georgia’s Military Road, which is a major route through the Caucasus from Georgia to Russia.
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Georgia’s National Environment Agency and Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University are launching a new project to monitor glaciers using unmanned aerial vehicles.
In about three years early warning systems will be installed throughout Georgia, enabling the population to receive relevant and timely information in a systematic way prior to disasters in order to make informed decisions and take action.
Specialists of the National Environmental Agency have been mobilised to study the situation and find the reason behind the incident.
The ice collapsed about 400 meters away from the glacier tongue yesterday and caused a large amount of water in the valley threatening the nearest rivers to flood. Specialists from the National Environmental Agency suggest that the collapse has been caused by the intense melting of the glacier during summer.
The National Environmental Agency of Georgia will be able to monitor natural disasters with new unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).