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Experts share ideas on land preservation at symposium

Land preservation specialists urged the government yesterday to give tax breaks to residents who decide to move after mud-slides caused by heavy rainfall threaten their residences.

"The government proposed that they [the residents] relocate to a different area," said Lin Mei-ling (林美聆), a civil engineering professor at National Taiwan University.

"But they should provide other incentives as well, such as lower taxes," Lin said.

information

Lin said the government should hand out to residents who choose to live in at-risk areas detailed geological information about the neighborhood so that they could better prepare themselves for eventual threats.

The suggestion was made at a seminar on the preservation of the national territory. Participants, including government officials, academics and non-government representatives, presented their research on the topic and offered possible solutions.

urgency

Cheng Chung-mo (城仲謀), chairman of the Taiwan Law and Policy Research Foundation, said land conservation had become a more important issue in light of the deaths of three individuals in Friday's landslide on Keelung's Maijin Road.

Chao Kuo-chao (趙國昭), deputy director general of the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, said that climate change has increased the frequency of natural disasters in the country.

Although the government has used advanced technology to monitor changes in land and rivers, Chao said authorities still have some difficulty forecasting mudslides with accuracy.

grid monitoring

Jimmy Chou (周天穎), director of the Geographic Information Systems Research Center at Feng Chia University, pointed to the need for a grid monitoring platform.

Only through such a system, he said, could geographical information from different government organizations be integrated in a way that allows for efficient monitoring.

It could also serve as an important reference when the government introduces new land policies, he said.

Chou also demonstrated how technology allows scientists to use information collected to simulate land preservation schemes and restore damaged properties.

"Technology aside, the government needs to enforce relevant laws to effectively preserve the land," he said.
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