The Kosova landslide in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mike G Winter1, Sarah J Reeves2, 3

, Gurmel Ghataora4, 3
, Haris
3

The Kosova landslide is a large translational landslide and caused significant damage to the main road, in the
toe area, and to buildings on the slide mass during a major movement on 19 May 2014. This movement
followed a period of prolonged heavy rain and flooding that caused significant disruption in Bosnia and
Herzegovina (BiH) and the Balkans. As of 20 May, an estimated 24 lives had been lost in BiH as a direct result
of the floods, with seven people missing. The rainfall was the highest in 120 years of recorded measurements.

Kosova is in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) around 90km NNE of the capital Sarajevo. The
landslide affected part of of Kosova village, in the northern part of the Maglaj Municipality, above and to the
west of the main road M17 (E73), S of Doboj. Many buildings were destroyed and left uninhabitable (Figure 1)
while the road required significant repair, including the construction of a retaining wall, prior to reopening.

Figure 1. Scarp features at the northern lateral margin of the landslide (the red line indicates the most evident
parts of the scarp features but is not intended to reflect the full complexity of the landslide). Damaged buildings
are also evident.

The site is close to the border between the FBIH and Republika Srpska (RS), which entities, along with the

investigation of the landslide in March 2018 was in weather conditions that very clearly delimited the mass
movement and they estimated a landslide plan area of around 115,000m 2 (Winter et al. 2020) some two to
four times that returned from earlier investigations. In addition to the damage to the road significant damage
to a number of buildings is evident (Figures 1 and 2), rendering them uninhabitable.

It seems clear that the landslide has the potential to dam the Bosna River and to create significant risk
associated with the hazards of flooding and subsequent landslide dam burst. As the river forms the border
between FBiH and RS the governance of the landslide risk management process is also a major issue that will
need to be resolved.

Figure 2. Panoramic image showing (1) the northerly lateral margin scarps (red lines indicate the clearest scarp
features do not reflect the full complexity of the landslide) with (2) significantly damaged buildings, (3) buildings
with relatively less damage in the central portion of the landslide, (4) tree demonstrating the lifting of the frontal
lobe, (5) at the extreme right the roofs of buildings at the southern lateral margin of the landslides are evident.

The Kosova landslide clearly presents a major operational risk for the M17 (E73) road and thus to PC Roads.
However, given the risk to houses on the flood plain there is a case to be made that the Municipality and/or
the Canton should be involved. In addition, the potential for damming the Bosna River also brings both the
Sava River Basin Agency and the Civil Protection Agency into that forum. However, given that the Bosna River
forms the border between the FBiH and the RS at this location, any flooding (both upstream and downstream)
would affect both the FBiH and the RS; it thus seems appropriate that the relevant agencies from the latter
should also be involved. In this context consideration should be given to a national, BiH, effort to monitor the
landslide and to effect remediation risk reduction where necessary.

The damage observed is significant but relatively slight compared to the potential for future damage. This
highlights the need for a joined-up multi-entity and/or national approach to the investigation, monitoring,
governance and, ultimately, to the subsequent management and mitigation of the Kosova landslide.

Acknowledgement: PC Roads, TRL and the University of Birmingham collaborated under a technical
assistance project to PC Roads funded by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery and
implemented by the World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not
necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments
they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work.

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