Engineering Geology & Geohazard Mapping
Regional and site-specific geological mapping, inventory of historical landslides, debris flows and rockfalls, geohazard classification, and terrain stability and susceptibility analysis.
Nepal's terrain fails in specific, repeatable ways, and the failures are rarely a surprise to anyone who mapped the ground first. Deep-seated movement, debris flow channels that reactivate, rockfall sources above a road bench — the evidence is usually visible in the landscape and in the historical record before it is visible in a damaged asset.
Our geohazard work starts with that record. Event mapping and inventory of historical landslides, debris flows, rockfalls and slope failures builds the empirical basis; regional and site-specific geological mapping establishes the lithology and structure behind it; and susceptibility analysis turns both into terrain that can be zoned and planned against.
For the Department of Roads' Geo-Environment and Social Unit we carried out geotechnical investigation and detailed design of remedial measures for an unstable and vulnerable roadside section of the Kanti Rajmarga, chainage 55+900 to 74+890. That work is representative of how the discipline is actually used: not an academic hazard map, but a specific decision about how to stabilise a specific nineteen kilometres of road.
Basin-scale geo-environmental and lithological characterisation supports the other direction — hydropower siting, reservoir studies and infrastructure corridors that need to know what the whole catchment is made of, not just the footprint.
What we deliver
- Regional and site-specific geological mapping
- Event mapping and inventory of historical landslides, debris flows, rockfalls and slope failures
- Geohazard process identification and classification
- Terrain stability and susceptibility analysis
- Geo-environmental and lithological characterization of river basins
How the work runs
- 01
Desk study and historical inventory
Existing geological mapping, imagery time series and event records compiled to establish what the terrain has already done.
- 02
Field geological mapping
Lithology, structure, weathering and slope process mapped on the ground, at regional or site scale as the assignment requires.
- 03
Process identification and classification
Failure mechanisms identified and classified, because the remedy for a rotational slide is not the remedy for a debris flow.
- 04
Susceptibility and stability analysis
Terrain stability and susceptibility modelled against slope, lithology, drainage and land cover, using own-source terrain models.
- 05
Remedial design or zonation output
Either specific remedial measures designed and detailed, or susceptibility zonation delivered for planning use.
What you receive
- Engineering geological map at specified scale
- Landslide, debris flow and rockfall inventory
- Geohazard process classification
- Terrain stability and susceptibility zonation maps
- Geo-environmental and lithological basin characterisation
- Remedial measure design and drawings
- Bill of quantities for remedial works
- GIS data package with hazard layers
Common questions
Do you design the remedial works or only map the hazard?
Both. The Kanti Rajmarga assignment for the Department of Roads covered geotechnical investigation and detailed design of remedial measures for a 19 km unstable section — investigation through to buildable design and quantities.
Can you map hazard across a whole river basin?
Yes — geo-environmental and lithological characterization of river basins is part of our published scope, and it is what hydropower and corridor projects need when the risk sits upstream of the footprint rather than in it.
Need a survey, a design package, or a multi-disciplinary study team?
Tell us about the corridor, basin, or facility. We will respond with the right mix of engineering and field capability.