An Adaptive and Sustained Landslide Monitoring

and Early Warning System

Teuku Faisal Fathani, Dwikorita Karnawati, and Wahyu Wilopo

Abstract
Areas prone to mass movement are widespread in Indonesia. The potential for landslide
disasters in several regions is controlled by the geotechnical and geological conditions and
triggered by high intensity rainfall and/or earthquake activity. The vulnerability to
landslides is made worse by intensive land-use development. The urgent issues to be
addressed are the dense populations residing in areas prone to mass movement and the
failure to relocate the local people to safer areas for socio-economic reasons. Therefore,
landslide monitoring, prediction, and early warning systems are urgently required to
guarantee the safety of communities living in such areas. A long running and sustainable
community-based landslide monitoring and early warning system (EWS) has been
developed in Indonesia, with establishment of collaboration among the local government,
universities, private sectors, NGOs, and the disaster management community. The main
purpose of the program is to establish a strategic approach for disaster risk reduction
through the implementation of information flow (for warning levels) and order/command
systems (for evacuation). These activities have already met the community needs, helped
save lives, and continued to obtain solid community support. In order to extend the effort,
further challenges are to expand the project coverage, and propose more effective landslide
monitoring, early warning, analysis, and visualization. In addition, the capabilities in socio-
economic risk assessment need to be expedited to help identify those most at risk within the
community. This paper describes the achievements and the current activities of the IPL
Project (IPL-158) “Development of Community-based Landslide Early Warning System”.

Keywords
Landslide monitoring sensors  Information flow  Command system  Community
empowerment

Introduction

As a basis for landslide mitigation, the implementation of

T.F. Fathani (*)
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitas
Gadjah Mada, Jalan Grafika No. 2, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
e-mail: tfathani@ugm.ac.id
D. Karnawati  W. Wilopo
Department of Geological Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada,
Jalan Grafika No. 2, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
e-mail: dwikoritakarnawati@yahoo.com; wwilopo@gadjahmada.edu
preventive measures usually focuses on avoiding slope
failure, diverting the moving mass away from vulnerable
elements, or building reinforcement to protect the threatened
elements. However, the importance of early warning systems
may rise if landslide mass stabilizing action is considered
expensive in financial and/or environmental terms. The
implementation of early warning systems may, at least, avoid
damage and the loss of human lives (Corominas et al. 2005).

K. Sassa et al. (eds.), Landslide Science for a Safer Geoenvironment, Vol. 2, 563
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05050-8_87, # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
564
Ideally, zones with a high susceptibility and landslide risk
should be prevented from being developed. Unfortunately,
quite often the susceptible particular zone has been
developed as a dense settlement of housing and infrastruc-
ture areas and the relocation of people living in this area to a
safer zone cannot be conducted due to some socio-economic
constraints. Thus, the development of a landslide warning
system becomes very critical to protect the people living in
the landslide-prone areas (Anderson et al. 2011; Halcombe
et al. 2012).
In order to guarantee the effectiveness of the landslide
early warning system, the developed system should be
simple to operate and appropriately installed in the most
suitable sites. Consequently, this system should incorporate
both technical and social approaches. The determination of
early warning criteria is considered as one of several
involvements in a technical approach (Fathani et al. 2011;
Fathani and Karnawati 2010).
The application of the most appropriate and adaptive
technology for an early warning system is considered crucial
to reduce the risk of landslide disasters. Unfortunately, the
effectiveness in implementing an early warning system
cannot be guaranteed due to inadequate consideration of
the social, cultural, and economic conditions. Accordingly,
the need to integrate social considerations into the technical
system should be addressed in order to assure the effective-
ness in the implementation of such an approach.
Development of the Technical System
The technical system to support landslide disaster risk
reduction was developed by Fathani and Karnawati (2012),
and consists of several technical components such as
instruments for a landslide early warning system
recommended by Fathani et al. (2008) and also Fathani and
Karnawati (2010), supported by the smart-grid for landslide
hazard communication, monitoring and early warning
developed by Karnawati et al. (2011b, 2012).
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada
Indonesia has developed simple and low-cost equipment
for landslide monitoring and early warning since 2007.
Initially, two types of simple extensometers and rain gauge
were installed at several pilot areas in Central Java and East
Java Provinces. The first type of extensometer is a handmade
manual reading extensometer and the other type is an
automatic extensometer for monitoring ground surface
movement. Both types of extensometers, coupled with an
Automatic Rainfall Recorder (ARR), are connected to the
alarm system to directly warn the local community to take
necessary actions in dealing with potential landslide
disasters (Fathani et al. 2008).
T.F. Fathani et al.
RF antenna
Digital
extensometer
Wire
PVC pipe
Concrete
foundation Crack
Reference anchor
(fix point)
Fig. 1 The installation scheme for an extensometer
In line with the installation of simple monitoring
equipment, the Asian Joint Research Project for Early
Warning of Landslides has conducted a field survey to
support the installation of real-time landslide monitoring
equipment. A pilot area has been established in the
Banjarnegara Regency, Central Java Province. This moni-
toring system presents the results of real-time measurement
by using long-span extensometers, a raingauge, and pore
pressure sensors, with monitoring of the scene by IP camera.
The real-time monitoring equipment consists of outdoor and
indoor units. The outdoor unit is fixed on a center pole and
consists of a fieldserver, two extensometers, a raingauge, an
IP camera and water pressure sensor. The fieldserver is a
sensing device with a real-time online data display system
which gathers the data from multiple sensors and shows it in
a webserver.
Since 2012, a real-time landslide monitoring and early
warning has been developed by Universitas Gadjah Mada.
The system comprises several sensors: namely a digital
extensometer, wireless tiltmeter, inclinometer, Automatic
Rainfall Recorder (ARR), ultrasonic water level sensor and
an IP Camera, and other sensors can be added, such as pore
water pressure and inclinometer sensors.
Extensometers are used to measure any change in the
distance between two fixed points across the crack and are
attached to the soil slope to be monitored. The system adopts
the auto-monitoring and event trigger method. When the
variations occur, the signal of 1 mm displacement triggers
the transmitter and at the same time, the digital data with a
highly precise position is transmitted to the server. Figure 1
shows the installation of a wireless-digital extensometer.
A wireless tiltmeter is a compact, waterproof tilt meter
with a range of 0 –80 in X and Y axis from horizontal
(Fig. 2). It is used to monitor changes in the inclination of
an unstable slope. Tiltmeter data can provide an accurate
An Adaptive and Sustained Landslide Monitoring and Early Warning System
RF Antenna
Anchor
Wireless
Tiltmeter
Concrete
foundation
Wooden/steel
anchor
Fig. 2 The installation of a wireless tiltmeter
history of slope inclination and provide early warning of a
potential landslide hazard. The system adopts the auto-
monitoring and event trigger method. When the variations
occur, the signal of 0.1 inclination triggers the transmitter
and at the same time, the digital data is transmitted to the
server.
The collected data from the extensometer, tiltmeter, ARR
and AWLR processed by microcontroller are sent point to
point in a wireless network. The data is received by a field
server; its functions are to receive, store, analyze and resend
data to the central server, and decide when to announce early
warnings to the local residents. The received data is then
stored in a digital storing media (memory card). The central
server consists of receiver equipment and a specific Personal
Computer (PC) to monitor data visually. The PC, which is
connected to the internet, will upload all the data to a web
server; therefore, the data can be monitored from any place
with internet access. Figure 3 shows a network diagram of a
telemetric system for real-time landslide monitoring and
early warning.
This real-time monitoring and early warning of landslides
and debris floods has been implemented at eight geothermal
areas in Sumatera, Java and Sulawesi Islands. This system
was developed based on cooperation between the Faculty of
Engineering Universitas Gadjah Mada and the Indonesian
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. In order to
support this system installation, geological and geotechnical
investigations have been conducted to examine the level of
risk at the geothermal areas. Accordingly, several methods
of landslide preventive measures in term of control works
and restraint works were designed and applied to the high
risk slopes.
565
Information Flow and Command System
to Support a Landslide Monitoring
and Early Warning System
Based on long experience, landslide monitoring and early
warning systems should be based on the most appropriate
and adaptive technology, with the involvement of the
local authority and community participation. Therefore,
both technical and communication skills are the main
requirements to achieve success in an early warning system
program. The system should include some technical aspects
such as geological surveys and site selection, design of
monitoring equipment which is simple (low-cost) but
effective, determination of early warning levels (warning
criteria), installation, operation and maintenance at the
field site. Social aspects should include social mapping and
evaluation, public consultation and dissemination of a
program, and community empowerment, including the
technical training and evacuation drills for landslide hazard
preparedness (Karnawati et al. 2011a).
One of the most critical considerations in disaster risk
reduction in Indonesia is the assurance of an effective and
sustainable information flow (during warning level) and
order/command flow (for evacuation). The local disaster
management agency at district or provincial level acts as
the center of this monitoring and early warning system. The
role of universities and NGOs is to facilitate the stakeholders
involved in this information and command system. Figure 4
shows the information flow and command system to support
landslide monitoring and early warning.
The proposed model of landslide early warning has been
quite effective and strategic in improving community
resilience at landslide-vulnerable villages. It is also crucial
that the system should be developed through community
participation and the provision of simple and low-cost
technology up to real-time technology for early warning.
Discussion
The most adaptive and sustained landslide disaster risk
reduction in Indonesia requires a consistent strategy and
support from the government, universities, NGOs and
private sectors for the implementation of community-based
projects. However, there is still a gap and disconnection
between the institutional and strategic approaches to
disaster risk reduction which will affect the effectiveness
of community-based projects in landslide-prone areas.
566 T.F. Fathani et al.

Digital Extensometer

Repeater

Wireless Tiltmeter and controller

Sirene and Rotary Light

Automatic as warning devices
Rainfall Recorder
Field server for data
acquisition and data
loger and Receiver

Ultrasonic water
level sensor

Interface for real-time landslide

IP Cam and Wi-fi PC-based monitoring monitoring data on PC/web

Fig. 3 Network diagram of a telemetric system for real-time landslide monitoring and early warning

Accordingly, the outcomes from community-based activities
remain isolated in time and locale, and are deprived of
higher-level resources and visibilities required to sustain
long-term risk reduction activities and spread capacities to
other communities.
The newly developed system facilitates a network of
sensors for monitoring and transmitting the hazard level to
the local authorities and local community by using the
sustained information flow and command system. The
sensor is designed by using real-time landslide monitoring
and early warning instruments, and also may involve human
sensors which comprise selected trained-people in the local
community, who have been dedicated in their commitment
for doing ground checking and sending reports related to
any observed warning signs of potential landslides. Their
understanding of the causes and landslide triggering
mechanisms is crucial to establishing appropriate concepts
and methods for landslide monitoring, determining warning
criteria for hazard prediction and risk assessment in the
region.
An Adaptive and Sustained Landslide Monitoring and Early Warning System 567

Landslide monitoring Coordination among

devices: Local Authority
- Extensometer (stakeholders):
- Tiltmeter - City/District
- Inclinometer Government
- Raingauge - Police/Army

Coordination
- Groundwater measurement - Red-cross

Command
- Ultrasonic water level sensor - SAR and Emergency
Visual ground check

- IP camera Response Units

Telemetry system By mobile phone
Local Disaster or public radio
Real-time Monitoring data Management Agency
Local server (online) (at District or Disaster
Provincial Level) Preparedness
SMS or HT Radio
Organization
Information transfer to - Village level
focal points - Sub-village level
Early Warning
- Local leaders
Yellow : Caution Direct Annauncement or
- Trained keypersons
Orange: Preparation Warning by turning the sirene
Announcement Red : Evacuation
Local Community
Local Community (Evacuation: Yes/No)
(Get ready for evacuation)

Flow of information (WARNING) Command System (EVACUATION)

Fig. 4 Flow of information and command system for landslide monitoring and early warning

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the International
Consortium on Landslides (ICL), Indonesian Ministry of National
Education, Indonesian National Agency for Disaster Management
(BNPB), and PT. Pertamina Geothermal Energy for their support to
this research project.
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