Building the Information System of Geohazards in Peru

This project applied geological, geomorphological, and engineering geological studies that focused on the documentation, definition, and prediction of natural hazards. The study area in Piura, the northern region in Peru, covers six map sheets at a scale of 1:100,000. El Niño, floods, landslides, erosion, and depositional features are frequent phenomena that can disrupt communications and damage settlements and agricultural land in the Chira and Piura river catchments. New studies evaluating the degree of natural risks provide insight into the economic development of the region. Predicting natural disasters and mitigating damages were also investigated.

GIS technology helped demonstrate the final results and supports a thematic interpretation of the results of topographical and hydrogeological analyses of a digital elevation model (DEM). Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data was used to obtain an enhanced DEM, and Landsat images and aerial photographs were used for topography and hydrology analyses.

The final product of the project is a GIS with natural hazards, geology, and geomorphology layers that integrate all the primary data obtained in the field, derived data representing the interpretation of the field data, and analysis of the topography and remote-sensing data.

This project was financed by the Czech Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the framework of the Development Assistance Project program.