Community base

The aim of MoSSaiC is to engage with the community, recognize its vital role in understanding and managing slope stability, and build its capacity to do so. Simultaneously, the community becomes the classroom for the government teams to exercise their own expertise, develop partnerships with the community, and establish good technical and managerial practices with respect to landslide risk.

A critical component of the Mossaic methodology is to discuss with residents why landslide risk drivers can vary over short distances, and therefore why they should expect that different hazard reduction measures may be needed on different parts of the hillside. Understandably, householders are anxious that they will tangibly benefit from such measures and will need reassurance, for instance, that a drain built upslope of their house will actually benefit them, even if it is not on their property. That such a decision (the design of the community drainage system) is not an imposed solution, but one that the community has takes ownership of from the beginning is important—not least for residents in vulnerable communities who are too often the subjects of development rather than active participants in the process.

For MoSSaiC, “community based” means engaging and working with communities to jointly find and deliver solutions to landslide risk. Identifying the most sensitive and effective means for engaging with each community will also provide the best opportunity for residents to “own” the project and adopt good slope management practices for themselves