SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT

Siting of Human Settlements

in Hilly Terrains
Amitava Sarkar

India Earthquake
Zone Map

Solutions for risk or thousands of years, the majestic
management in hilly
regions through Good
Siting Practices...
F Himalayan mountain range is look-
ing after India. The Himalayan
range has protected and nourished India
and is still doing it. India is crowned with
hills stretching from Kashmir and
Himachal Pradesh in North-West to
Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland in
extreme North-East covering the whole
of the Himalayan range. These mountains
are contributing immensely in the overall
development and progress of the coun-
try. These Hills have accommodated
human settlements of various sizes,
which have flourished over the years. The
crunch of the situation at present is that
these settlements are both growing in
number and size.
The entire stretch of hilly region has
wide variations in geology, geomorphol-
ogy, climate, altitude and materials
resources. The varying geological situa-
tions and ongoing development activi-
ties, climatic variation, hydro-geological

40 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People December 2008

Damages caused by landslides
conditions result in different types of haz-
ards like landslides, avalanches, mud
flows, flash floods which occur frequently
Adverse Human actions affecting hills
in these areas. Among the various cata-
strophic calamities, these hilly regions
also have high risk due to earthquakes.
December 2008 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 41
These areas are prone to seismic activity
as most regions fall under seismic zones
IV and V.
Unprecedented exploitation of the
Himalayas is another reason for occur-
rence of landslides. North, North-West
Himalayan areas consisting of Jammu
and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and
Western Uttar Pradesh are more prone
to avalanches, earthquakes, floods and
high speed winds. Sikkim is highly
prone to landslides and seismic activity.
North-East Himalayan area consisting
of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram,
Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur
and Assam are mostly affected by
floods and fall under seismic zone V.
These hilly areas are prone to two or
more types of natural calamities, such
as floods and landslides, earthquakes,
avalanches and landslides. There may
be also overlapping of occurances
of disasters.
CLIMATE IN INDIAN HILLS
Hilly regions of the Himalayan range from
North-West to extreme North-East fall
under cold humid and temperate humid
climate. The climatic conditions shall be
categorised on the basis of average of
daily mean temperature and relative
humidity for the month. Temperate 20°C -
30°C, cool 15°C -20°C and cold < 15°C tem-
perature, and dry 25-30, humid 50-75 and
very humid 75- 100 percent humidity.
These hilly regions are having fol-
lowing climatic conditions during the
stated months.
Month North North-East
January Cold humid Cold humid
May Cold dry Temperate
humid
August Temperate Temperate
very humid very humid
November Cold Temperate
humid humid
Residential buildings shall essentially
be a form of protection against the exter-
nal climate. The prevailing climatic condi-
tion shall, therefore, be a major factor for
consideration in design of a house to
ensure a reasonable degree of thermal
comfort to the occupants.
Traditionally, house facing the east
direction are preferred by the inhabitants
in North and North-East regions of the
Himalayas due to exposure to sunlight.
BASIC GUIDELINES OF
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
All the developmental activities in hilly
areas must be done in an integrated man-
ner with the existing settlement structure
of the surroundings resulting into a
coherent and sustainable growth.
Through proper guidelines, the con-
cerned agencies must ensure:
• Selection, Planning, Designing and
Use of Appropriate Sites for Specific
Purposes / Activities to stimulate
Sustainable Development and Safer
Human Habitat.
42 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People December 2008
• Enacting Roles & Responsibilities of
Professionals, Builders, Homeowners
and Authorities
• Creation of scientific databases
through investigations and mapping
at local level for zonation practice &
landuse regulation for sensitive areas.
• Timely Technological Intervention
and Counter-disaster measures in
hazardous situations for effective risk
management solutions.
• Siting as a compulsory part of an inte-
grated building design process.
The Development authorities should,
• Regulate Land-use through Micro-
level Hazard Zonation Studies to min-
imise risks due to natural hazards and
physical vulnerability.
• Discourage casual approach and
encourage systematic siting, con-
struction and maintenance approach.
• Restore and Rejuvenate degraded,
abandoned and waste lands.
Guidelines are recommended actions
for best practices to achieve better goals
but not mandatory to follow. Standards
and codes are mandatory to follow to
avoid any techno-legal implications.
GUIDELINES FOR SITING
Siting guidelines refers to searching,
selecting, evaluating, planning, design-
ing, development, maintenance and
monitoring of sites for safe and sustain-
able landuse through micro-level site
investigations & zonation practices.
Integrate physical, ecological and envi-
ronmental elements with development
process and also consider the potential
slope instabilities and failures.
• No house shall preferably be located
closer than 1 m to another house.
• No house shall preferably be located
closer than 10 m to a steep slope.
• No house shall be built on a land fill or
on the edge of a slope known to have
been levelled.
Following points shall be kept in view
with reference to particular risks.
Earthquake
• Available data on disposition of fault-
ing and spread of poor bearing soils
and unrestrained sands should
be used.
• Narrow ridges, steep slopes, narrow
valleys and sites near cliffs or large
gullies that are within 150 m should
be avoided.
• Sites with hard bedrock at or near the
surface should be preferred.
• Sites where landslides are unknown
in surrounding area should
be preferred.
• Sites where there is no sign of active
faulting should be chosen and offset
rock lays, row of ponds or swamps
and deep or long cracks in ground
should be avoided.
Landslides
• All available data on disposition of
risk area should be used.
• Local geographical conditions shall
indicate severity of risk.
Snow avalanches
• Use all available data on disposition
of risk area. Heavy snow fall may be
associated with heavy rains.
• Prefer sites away from avalanches
sites.
• Avoid formation of snow pockets on
roof and on site.
• Design roofs with slopes greater than
50º to disregard snow load.
GOOD SITING PRACTICE
• Advantage of natural site features
such as topography, geology, hydrol-
ogy, sunlight / shade, breeze, existing
landuse, landcover & infrastructure
should be utilised.
• Integrate the building architec-
turally into natural context of site,
 which minimize the appearance
and aesthetic views.
• Minimize site clearing, excavation and
earthworks to reduce costs.
• Preserve existing vegetation,
which can reduce landscape
maintenance costs.
• Mitigate erosion to reduce
topsoil loss.
• Manage for stormwater runoff and
erosion.
• Minimize groundwater and surface
water pollution.
• Minimize disturbance to natural
drainage & hydrological system.
• Reduce the risk of natural hazards
through prevention & mitigation.
• Investigate ground conditions before
planning design & construction.
The site constraints in Hill areas
Many a times design opportunities
emerge from the existing site con-
straints. In order to exploit the full
potential of the site the inventory and
analysis of following features should
be made:
• Proximity to hazardous areas / sensi-
tive / critical areas.
• Topography & Slope Conditions (gra-
dient, aspect etc.).
• Geology & Geomorphology.
• Neotectonics, Active Tectonics &
Paleo-Seismicity.
• Seismological records and histori-
cal data.
• Meteorology, Micro-climatology &
Hydrogeology.
• Vegetation / Landcover.
• Existing & Proposed Infrastructure.
December 2008 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 43
• Existing structures and Adjacent
Landuse.
• Easements, views.
INVESTIGATION OF SITES
Investigation of sites must be carried out
by conducting thorough field observa-
tions & Mapping and by collecting sam-
ples of soils from the site for laboratory
and in-situ testing. All data thus collected
will be integrated for computations,
analysis and inferences.
Following information will be gener-
ated from the site-investigation:
■ Preparing Engineering Geologic
Mapping:
Topographic Maps, Aerial Photos,
S a t e l l i t e I m a g e r i e s a n d Fi e l d
Observation / Data.

Conducting Field Survey
■ Conducting Laboratory Tests:
M a t e r i a l C l a s s i f i c a t i o n ( D e n s i t y,
Examples of Good Hillside practice
44 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People December 2008
Compressibilty, wave velocity etc.)
and Characterization for engineering
design & evaluation of landslide /
liquefaction / settlement potential in
adverse conditions;
Repor ting Sampling & Testing
Procedure; Data, Results & Interpretation
■ In-situ / Field Testing:
Geophysical (cross hole, down hole, GPR,
Resistivity)
Geotechnical: Surface & Subsurface
(SPT, CPT, Shear Wave Velocity etc.)
■ Computations:
Integration of all data / information (cre-
ating the GIS), Analysis and Inferences
■ Producing Professional Reports
with comments and Peer review of
Reports.
An integrated ground – structure (foun-
dation and superstructure) – hazard inter-
action analysis should be carried out by
conducting Site-response analysis based
on - conditions for Ground Failures and
Slope Stability Analysis in adverse condi-
tions (considering high seismic accelera-
tions and pore water pressures). Also
the Structural Response Analysis
(Vulnerability) will be carried out based
on Performance based fail safe / safe fail-
ure analysis. The Frequency, Magnitude &
Duration of all Hazardous events must be
listed down for consideration.
Along with the above mentioned
analytical data, the information regarding
the Risk Assessment, Mitigation
Measures, Maintenance & Monitoring,
Warning & Alert, and Preparedness &
Emergency Response with respect to the
location of the settlement should be
obtained for safety. Good Practices to avoid Landslides

Examples of Poor Hillside practice

December 2008 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 45

MICROLEVEL LANDSLIDE
HAZARD ZONATION FOR
LANDUSE REGULATION AND
DEVELOPMENT OF SAFER
SETTLEMENTS
The topographical map of the study area
is obtained and divided into smaller seg-
ments of slope facets. On the slope facet
map, a number of the pre-field maps are
prepared so that these can be carried to
the field, verified and modified wherever
required. The geological data from the
already available regional scale maps are
collected and transferred on the facet
map. The slope morpho-metric map and
the relative relief map shall be prepared
from the topographical maps. The avail-
able information regarding land use and
land cover from the topographical maps
shall also be transferred to a slope facet
map. If aerial photographs or satellite
imageries of the area are available, more
accurate data on land use and land cover
can be obtained. The wet patches on the
slopes shall be identified using satellite
imageries or aerial photographs and the
same shall be transferred on a slope facet
map for field validation.
The pre-field maps are carried to
the field and they are validated facet-
wise. While working on one bank of the
river, the facets on the other side are
also carefully observed. Using data
from the Standards, individual factorial
maps namely lithological map, struc-
tural map, slope morphometric map,
relative relief map, land use and land
cover map and hydrogeological map A Typical map of the study area
are prepared. For awarding ratings on
structures, the observed structural dis- the total estimated hazard (TEHD) by factors within a facet using the follow-
continuities are plotted on stereonet adding the ratings of all the causative ing Table.
and the preferred orientation as well as Landslide Hazard Zonation on the Basis of Total Estimated Hazard (TEHD)
possible types of failures is also Zone TEHD Value Description of Zone
obtained. Moreover the visual stability I <3.5 Very low hazard (VLH) zone
conditions may be noted for compari- II 3.5 to 5.0 Low hazard (LH) zone
son after analysis. III 5.1 to 6.0 Moderate hazard (MH) zone
The LANDSLIDE HAZARD ZONATION IV 6.0 to 7.5 High hazard (HH) zon
(LHZ) map is prepared by calculating V >7.5 Very high hazard (VHH) zone

46 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People December 2008

A typical Slope Morphometry map Landslide Hazard Zonation Map for the study area

Major roads, important towns and
villages shall also be shown on the
final LHZ map for the purpose of
regional planning.
CONCLUSION
Impact of Road Construction,
Deforestation, Mining, Shifting
Cultivation, Forest Fires / Wild Fires,
Overgrazing, Dams / Reservoirs /
Irrigation / Water Supply /Sewerage
Systems, Power & Telecommunication
Lines, Blasting Activities (mining, road,
hydel etc.), heavy machinery – all these
activities endanger building-safety in
hill-regions. For the integrated and sus-
tainable socio-spatio-economic devel-
opment of the hill regions in India the
requisites, roles, responsibilities & liabili-
ties of the professionals, authorities,
builders and homeowners involved
must be ensured.
Professionals, Builders and
Contractors must have the necessary
qualifications & experience to carry out
the construction activities in the hilly
areas. The Scientists, Engineers and
Decision makers must be trained and
made aware of all the guidelines appli-
cable in the hill regions. Building
Permit Regulations must be enforced
for Development Control, Public
Awareness and Education on Landslide
Management Strategies. The individual
homeowner’s must be also made aware
of their obligations and responsibilities
to avoid any disaster and casualty by
training them through demonstration
about the good practices of construc-
tion in hill terrains. Techno-legal &
Techno-financial aspects like, Building
Loans, Tax Reliefs, Insurance Premiums,
Incentives, should be used to attract
the local people to adopt the good and
safe construction practices. It should

December 2008 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 47

 to retain the beauty, glory and sanctity
of the Hills, which are treasures
of India and also the universe at the
larger context.

REFERENCES
● National Building Code 2005
● IS 14496 (Part 2):1998 Guidelines for
preparation of landslide – Hazard
zonation maps in mountainous ter-
rain: Part 2 Macro Zonation
● IS 14680:1999 Guidelines for
Landslide Control IS 14804:2000
Guidelines for Siting, Design and
Selection of Materials for residential
buildings in Hilly Areas
● BMTPC, New Delhi ■

Amitava Sarkar is a Lecturer,

Construction on Slope
be clear from the above discussions
that all the stakeholders involved in the
developmental activities in the hilly
Architecture Department, NIT-
region must carry out their duty by tak- Hamirpur (H.P.)
ing a holistic approach towards their Photographs: Cour tesy the
action and must always be sensitive Author.

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