Panama flood, landslides surveyed

WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher in Panama says he's created a digital map of land scars formed when heavy rainfall sent hillsides sliding into rivers and closed the canal.

When two feet of heavy rain inundated the Panama Canal watershed Dec. 7-10, 2010, the resulting landslides and flooding closed the canal for the first time since 1935 and an influx of sediment overwhelmed the Panama City water treatment plant, leaving a million residents of central Panama without clean drinking water for nearly a month, a release from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute said Tuesday.

Smithsonian scientist Robert Stallard, on a flight donated by LightHawk, a U.S.-based conservation organization that provides flights for research and conservation efforts, obtained images of 191 square miles of watershed.

The resulting watershed erosion map will allow Stallard and collaborators from the Panama Canal Authority to calculate the landslide risk of future storms and direct strategies to minimize the effect on Panama's water supply, the Smithsonian said.