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Every morning, Nepali primary school teacher Bina Tamang steps outside her home and checks the rain gauge, part of an early warning system in one of the world’s most landslide-prone regions. Tamang contributes to an AI-powered early warning system that uses rainfall and ground movement data, local observations and satellite imagery to predict landslides up to weeks in advance, according to its developers at the University of Melbourne. From her home in Kimtang village in the hills of northwest Nepal, 29-year-old Tamang sends photos of the water level to experts in the capital Kathmandu, a five-hour drive to the south. “Our village is located in difficult terrain, and landslides are frequent here, like many villages in Nepal,” Tamang told AFP. Every year during the monsoon season, floods and landslides wreak havoc across South Asia, killing hundreds of people. Nepal is especially vulnerable due to unstable geology, shifting rainfall patterns and poorly planned development. As a mountainous country, it is already “highly prone” to landslides, said Rajendra Sharma, an early warning expert at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
Full report : Nepal Tests AI-Powered Early Warning System To Predict Landslides.