Abstract

 

Landslides in the UK possess significant potential to damage property and infrastructure, particularly in urban areas where there are high densities of fixed capital. Although there is some evidence on the effect of landslides on the built environment it is often subjective and shown to be poorly understood and difficult to measure. Transactional analysis of house prices, combined with an understanding of landslide activity was evaluated as a viable method of assessing the impact of landslides.

The aim of this study was to determine if landslides have any negative spatial or temporal effect on local house prices. A case study based approach was undertaken in three urban landslide areas; Ventnor, Isle of Wight; Lyme Regis, Dorset and Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. 12,663 records of house price transaction data were collected for the period between 1995-2012 and mapped in a GIS to compare changes in house price with local landslide events. A walk over survey of landslide building damage was conducted at each site and mapped (1380 records in total) with the house prices to determine if proximity to damage causes blight.

Analyses demonstrates that for each case study, individual landslide events cause little or no negative impacts on nearby property prices, landslide remediation can have a very localised positive impact on local house prices. Damage to property caused by ongoing landslide movement was found to cause localised blight and suppress house prices within 75 metres of damage. However, the socio-economic environment is important in determining the degree of house price impact of landslide events and for most locations, landslides form only a minor impact by comparison to other local factors.

Course: Master of Philosophy - MPhil

Date Deposited: 2018-04-17

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13173.html