The aftermath of the Matai’an landslide in Taiwan

It is likely that the final death toll from the collapse of the Matai’an landslide dam will be 25 people.

The dust is literally settling in the aftermath of the breach of the Matai’an landslide dam in Taiwan. The current estimates for the loss are life are 18 fatalities with seven more missing, and a further 107 injuries. This would seem to be a high level of loss for an event that was forecast, so there is considerable upset in Taiwan. Questions are being raised as to why no major attempt was made to mitigate the hazard at the site of the landslide.

I will discuss the site of the landslide itself in the coming days, but in the meantime this pair of Planet images gives an idea of the scale of the impact of the Matai’an landslide dam breach. First, this is PlanetScope image from 30 August, before the breach:-

And here is the same site after the breach:-

And here is a slider to compare the two images:-

As the images show, there is an extremely high level of inundation of Guangfu, especially on the eastern side of the town.

Reference

Planet Team 2024. Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://www.planet.com/

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