Land policies for landslide risk reduction in Andean cities

Andean cities are increasingly subjected to landslide susceptibility and events, accompanied by population and urban growth and uncertain extreme climate events. In light of this, academic and professional communities have begun to pay close attention and now face the challenge of producing more detailed knowledge and converting it into effective action. This article is based on a literature review supporting a multidimensional conceptual framework to address landslide risk reduction for the urban Andes context. It aims to complement the environmental dimension, which often shows the resulting physical condition of risk, with landslide risk root-causes by exploring socio-economic and socio-cultural dimensions and the policy and institutional apparatuses that accompany the former di- mensions. We aim to identify and understand the inextricable links between the four dimensions and determine how subdimensions can operatively describe and help to understand this complexity. An example from a landslide risk-prone site in Quito illustrates the application of the framework and delivers lessons from a specific context and time. Parts of these lessons may be common for other contexts, but their understanding is critical for landslide risk reduction.