Landslide Assessment Guideline Now Available Online

At its March 17, 2006 meeting, Council approved the Guidelines for Legislated Landslide Assessments for Proposed Residential Development in British Columbia. The Guidelines are now available online, and can be viewed at www.apeg.bc.ca/library/library/guidelines/landslide_guidelines.pdf.

This document provides guidelines of professional practice for a Professional Engineer or Professional Geoscientist who carries out a landslide analysis for a proposed residential development.

Recognizing that there is currently no legislated, or generally accepted definition of what is considered “safe,” the document also provides guidance to members who are requested to relate the results of their analysis to a level of terrain safety for residential development. This has been a longstanding problem for members of APEGBC who are engaged in such work and requested under government legislation to provide a certification “that the land may be used safely for the use intended.”

In the Guideline, “Appendix D: Landslide Assessment Assurance Statement” is the document which addresses this issue while achieving the following:

  • a) appropriately qualifying the nature of the assurance provided by the signing professional engineers/geoscientists; and
  • b) reinforcing the level of due diligence the member must carry out when practicing in this field.

The BC Ministries of Forests, Transportation and Community Services jointly guided the work proposal, and through the assistance of Glenn Moore, P.Eng. of the Ministry of Forests, funding in the amount of $50, 220 was obtained for this project from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General through the Provincial Emergency Program (PEP) under their Natural Hazards Mitigation Fund.

Bob Gerath, P.Geo.; Dr. Mattias Jakob, P.Geo.; and Doug VanDine, P.Eng./P.Geo. were the senior practitioners engaged by APEGBC to prepare the many drafts of the documents required due to the extensive review process put in place. In addition the efforts of the APEGBC appointed members of the Internal Review Group and the External Review Group were key to the successful completion of these Guidelines (for a list of the individuals involved, see Appendix E of the Guidelines).

It is important to note that while addressing “what to do” when carrying out landslide assessments for residential development, the Guidelines are not a prescriptive “how to do it” manual. This aspect is appropriately left to the discretion of the professional engineer, or professional geoscientist carrying out the work.

Finally, in APEGBC’s final progress report to the Ministry of Forests on this project, the Association confirmed that there was one major issue identified during the preparation of the Guidelines that requires further attention. While it is outside the context of the work covered under the Guidelines, APEGBC recommended that a strategy be developed which would result in the BC Government developing and implementing a defined level of landslide safety which could be adopted province-wide. APEGBC has confirmed their availability to assist in the development of such a defined level of landslide safety.