Effectiveness of measures aiming to stabilize urban gullies in tropical cities: Results from field surveys across D.R. Congo

Urban gullies are a rapidly growing concern in many tropical cities of the Global South. Various measures already implemented for their stabilization. However, an overview these and overall effectiveness is currently lacking. We aim at addressing this gap by documenting existing initiatives to stabilize urban D.R. Congo assessing effectiveness. To end we conducted extensive field campaigns Kinshasa, Kikwit Bukavu combined our terrain observations with data on gully expansion rates (derived from series satellite imagery). In total, characterized present past stabilization 398 gullies. For 69 gullies, effect specific measure could be estimated. Results show that large majority various have been implemented. Yet, mainly ad-hoc installed affected population. More structural based larger engineering works were observed only 20–30% The huge efforts invested installation strongly contrast low impact. Among all strategies, deviation runoff resulted significantly lower after installation. numerous rely sparse means available seem limited effects. This does not imply, however, they completely ineffective should abandoned. Based findings, formulate recommendations further research how effectively prevent taking into account difficult environmental socio-economic context.