I have been invited to collaborate with the Tasmanian Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPAC) and Mineral Resources Tasmania (MRT) to prepare landslide guidelines for geotechnical practitioners and regulators in this state. Both government entities have been working hard to address geotechnical hazards in Tasmania.
The players in this game are State Government, Planning Authorities (local Councils), people who write geotechnical reports, and clients.
It’s a challenging opportunity for me. Some of the issues arising from this approach might be:
- what guidelines should be adopted for landslide reports?
- what people should be authorised to write landslide reports?
- what level of investigation should the reports address? and
- how should this be incorporated in planning regulations?
A platform to discuss and contribute to these issues is available to interested parties – at MRT’s launch of the Northern Tamar Valley Landslide Zoning Map in Launceston on 25-26 March 2014. The 2-day workshop is co-sponsored by the Australian Geomechanics Society.
At the workshop, I will be presenting some initial thoughts on how we practitioners currently handle landslide assessments and reports, how we might do it better, and how regulators and planners might get involved. If you are working in this field, you should attend.
Contact Colin.Mazengarb@dier.tas.gov.au.