Landslides

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Above picture was taken this winter.  During the winter, the water in the cracks of rocks freeze and expands, and when they melt landslides occur.  Because of this landslide the road was closed for several days.

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Looks like there was a landslide here as well.  At the bottom of this runs an old path, which disappears right where the landslide occurred.

So, I understand the needs to prevent these things from happening, and I definitely do not want to be crushed by those rocks.  But, having said that, I feel like the whole of Japan, not just Iya, works too hard to prevent landslides.  So much of the roadsides and riversides are completely covered by concretes, and not just on the steep slopes but on the flat areas as well.  And there are dams built deep in the mountains where small amount of water flows through and nobody lives nearby and rarely anybody comes by.  Concrete surface of course alters an ecosystem, a concrete covered riverbeds and riversides disintegrates and simplifies the ecology, for example, and only few species dominates in otherwise an environment with high biodiversity.  And it just simply looks ugly.

I understand it is necessary to some extent, but are there not a smarter way to do it?