ABSTRACT
Whilst there is little doubt that the impact of landslides worldwide is substantial, the quantification of this impact remains surprisingly poor. Estimates of the costs of landslides in human terms vary hugely. For example, Alexander (1993) suggested that the global cost of landslides in the period 1900-1976 was 17 000 ‘people affected’. On the other hand, Brabb (1991) estimated that the global death toll from landslides has increased from 600 per year in the early 1970’s through to several thousand per year by the early 1990’s. The economic costs of landslides are equally difficult to quantify, but estimates have included $1.6-3.2 billion per annum for the USA, $1 billion per year for Japan, and $62 million for Venezuela (Schuster & Highland 2001) (Table 1). However, these statistics are rather general and are difficult to compare.
