New technologies and services
Early warning system to benefit victims of landslides
Expertise
Geotechnical Engineering
Working in conjunction with The British Geological Survey, our geotechnical engineers have developed a landslide early warning system.
Assessment of Landslides using Acoustic Real-time Monitoring Systems (ALARMS) is an affordable early warning system enabling vulnerable people to be evacuated and critical infrastructure protected.
The experts developed the device to gauge the stability of slopes with a sensor that picks up the high frequency sounds that come from soil particles moving underground. It represents a step change both in terms of technical performance and manufacturing cost.
Its use will lead to a reduction in the number of deaths through early warnings and timely intervention to stabilise slopes to reduce the impact of landslides on critical infrastructure such as transport and water supply networks. This will have a direct economic benefit for both the operators of these services and the populations that rely on them.
Annually, landslides result in thousands of deaths world-wide and many thousands of survivors being made homeless. The havoc they wreak on basic services such as water supply and transport costs billions of pounds to repair.
A commercially available ALARMS sensor is expected to be launched in the next two years.