Joshimath is a hill town, located in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand was affected by an incidence of sudden outburst of silt-laden water in the lower part of the slope of Joshimath occurred on 2nd January, (Wasowski, and Bovegna, 2023) which led to rampant ground fissures and ground cracks, oriented NNW–SSE. This unprecedented incidence inflicted damage to a number of human dwellings thus forcing relocation of thousands of local people. Integration of a high-resolution Lidar survey along with RTK survey for geologically mapping, delineation of slope forming materials, recording of ground distress features, high resolution (12 m) DEM derived thematic maps for various geofactors, evaluation of susceptibility conditions, results of ground geological survey, geophysical profiling, geotechnical analysis of bed rock and soil samples, has been used for the first time for such a study. Based on the dominant failure mechanisms the Joshimath area has been divided into three different domains and a qualitative hazard and qualitative risk assessment has been attempted to identify locales of expected conditions of occurrence (severity) of higher magnitude (number of events) of similar slope distressing phenomena having comparable size and impact. A holistic and comprehensive yet site specific slope management plan has been prepared, for each of the ward in Joshimath. This unique approach of integrating a multidisciplinary approach provides an important insight to address such problems around the settlements located in higher Himalayan reaches.
