LIPI unveils landslide detector

The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) says it has designed a device to detect landslides, and that is is ready to install the technology in landslide-prone areas.

LIPI exhibited the landslide detector at the LIPI Expo, on the sidelines of the 10th National Science Congress from Tuesday to Thursday.

“[The device] can detect even a few millimeters of ground movement. If the movement is significant, the device will send a real time signal and the data will be immediately displayed on the monitors at the observation station,” LIPI Physics Research Center researcher Nursidiq said at the expo on Thursday.

He said that the device was a result of a collaboration between his unit and LIPI's Center for Geotechnological Research.

Nursidiq added that the device had been tested in Karang Sambung in the Central Java town of Kebumen.

He said it was ready to be installed in landslide-prone areas, and that to prevent the devices from vandalism, local village or subdistrict heads could be asked to guard them, Antara news agency reported.