Whatsapp helps predict landslides

UK researchers are using information sent via Whatsapp to help predict deadly landslides in Colombia.

The team has been training the community of an informal settlement in Medellin City to monitor how their hillside is shifting over time. The residents, who live in an area at high risk of landslides, send regular photos via Whatsapp to the researchers to enable them to monitor the situation.

The research team, which includescolleaguesfromheriot-watt University, the University of Edinburgh and the National University of Colombia, use the images to advise residents on how to mitigate the problems through draining and can warn them if a landslide is imminent.

Dr Gabriela Medero, associate professor in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering at Heriot-watt, said: “Using Whatsapp is important as it records the time and date automatically and is a platform which is globally accessible.

“These photographs allow us to see relative movements and early signs of differential movements as well as highlighting where water enters and exits the slopes.”