Application of an incomplete landslide inventory, logistic regression model and its validation for landslide susceptibility mapping related to the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake of China

The main purpose of this paper is to present the use of multi-resource remote sensing data, an incomplete landslide inventory, GIS technique and logistic regression model for landslide susceptibility mapping related to the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake of China. Landslide location polygons were delineated from visual interpretation of aerial photographs, satellite images in high resolutions, and verified by selecting field investigations. Eight factors, including slope angle, slope aspect, elevation, distance from drainages, distance from roads, distance from main faults, seismic intensity and lithology were selected as controlling factors for earthquake-triggered landslide susceptibility mapping. Qualitative susceptibility analyses were carried out using the map overlaying techniques in GIS platform. The validation result showed a success rate of 82.751 % between the susceptibility probability index map and the location of the initial landslide inventory. The predictive rate of 86.930 % was obtained by comparing the additional landslide polygons and the landslide susceptibility probability index map. Both the success rate and the predictive rate show sufficient agreement between the landslide susceptibility map and the existing landslide data, and good predictive power for spatial prediction of the earthquake-triggered landslides.     

GIS-based spatial prediction of debris flows using logistic regression and frequency ratio models for Zêzere River basin and its surrounding area,Northwest Covilhã, Portugal

Landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) is important for catastrophe management in the mountainous regions. They focus on generating susceptibility maps beginning from landslide inventories and considering the main predisposing parameters. The aim of this study was to assess the susceptibility of the occurrence of debris flows in the Zêzere River basin and its surrounding area using logistic regression (LR) and frequency ratio (FR) models. To achieve this, a landslide inventory map was created using historical information, satellite imagery, and extensive field works. One hundred landslides were mapped, of which 75% were randomly selected as training data, while the remaining 25% were used for validating the models. The landslide influence factors considered for this study were lithology, elevation, slope gradient, slope aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), distance to roads, topographic wetness index (TWI), and stream power index (SPI). The relationships between landslide occurrence and these factors were established, and the results were then evaluated and validated. Validation results show that both methods give acceptable results [the area under curve (AUC) of success rates is 83.71 and 76.38 for LR and FR, respectively]. Furthermore, the AUC results for prediction accuracy revealed that LR model has the highest predictive performance (AUC of predicted rate?=?80.26). Hence, it is concluded that the two models showed reasonably good accuracy in predicting the landslide susceptibility in the study area. These two models have the potential to aid planners in development and land-use planning and to offer tools for hazard mitigation measures.     

Application of frequency ratio,statistical index,and weights-of-evidence models and their comparison in landslide susceptibility mapping in Central Nepal Himalaya

The Mugling–Narayanghat road section falls within the Lesser Himalaya and Siwalik zones of Central Nepal Himalaya and is highly deformed by the presence of numerous faults and folds. Over the years, this road section and its surrounding area have experienced repeated landslide activities. For that reason, landslide susceptibility zonation is essential for roadside slope disaster management and for planning further development activities. The main goal of this study was to investigate the application of the frequency ratio (FR), statistical index (SI), and weights-of-evidence (WoE) approaches for landslide susceptibility mapping of this road section and its surrounding area. For this purpose, the input layers of the landslide conditioning factors were prepared in the first stage. A landslide inventory map was prepared using earlier reports, aerial photographs interpretation, and multiple field surveys. A total of 438 landslide locations were detected. Out these, 295 (67 %) landslides were randomly selected as training data for the modeling using FR, SI, and WoE models and the remaining 143 (33 %) were used for the validation purposes. The landslide conditioning factors considered for the study area are slope gradient, slope aspect, plan curvature, altitude, stream power index, topographic wetness index, lithology, land use, distance from faults, distance from rivers, and distance from highway. The results were validated using area under the curve (AUC) analysis. From the analysis, it is seen that the FR model with a success rate of 76.8 % and predictive accuracy of 75.4 % performs better than WoE (success rate, 75.6 %; predictive accuracy, 74.9 %) and SI (success rate, 75.5 %; predictive accuracy, 74.6 %) models. Overall, all the models showed almost similar results. The resultant susceptibility maps can be useful for general land use planning.     

A comparative study on the landslide susceptibility mapping using evidential belief function and weights of evidence models

The purpose of this study is to produce landslide susceptibility map of a landslide-prone area (Daguan County, China) by evidential belief function (EBF) model and weights of evidence (WoE) model to compare the results obtained. For this purpose, a landslide inventory map was constructed mainly based on earlier reports and aerial photographs, as well as, by carrying out field surveys. A total of 194 landslides were mapped. Then, the landslide inventory was randomly split into a training dataset; 70% (136 landslides) for training the models and the remaining 30% (58 landslides) was used for validation purpose. Then, a total number of 14 conditioning factors, such as slope angle, slope aspect, general curvature, plan curvature, profile curvature, altitude, distance from rivers, distance from roads, distance from faults, lithology, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), sediment transport index (STI), stream power index (SPI), and topographic wetness index (TWI) were used in the analysis. Subsequently, landslide susceptibility maps were produced using the EBF and WoE models. Finally, the validation of landslide susceptibility map was accomplished with the area under the curve (AUC) method. The success rate curve showed that the area under the curve for EBF and WoE models were of 80.19% and 80.75% accuracy, respectively. Similarly, the validation result showed that the susceptibility map using EBF model has the prediction accuracy of 80.09%, while for WoE model, it was 79.79%. The results of this study showed that both landslide susceptibility maps obtained were successful and would be useful for regional spatial planning as well as for land cover planning.     

A comparative study of sequential minimal optimization-based support vector machines,vote feature intervals,and logistic regression in landslide susceptibility assessment using GIS

Landslide susceptibility assessment using GIS has been done for part of Uttarakhand region of Himalaya (India) with the objective of comparing the predictive capability of three different machine learning methods, namely sequential minimal optimization-based support vector machines (SMOSVM), vote feature intervals (VFI), and logistic regression (LR) for spatial prediction of landslide occurrence. Out of these three methods, the SMOSVM and VFI are state-of-the-art methods for binary classification problems but have not been applied for landslide prediction, whereas the LR is known as a popular method for landslide susceptibility assessment. In the study, a total of 430 historical landslide polygons and 11 landslide affecting factors such as slope angle, slope aspect, elevation, curvature, lithology, soil, land cover, distance to roads, distance to rivers, distance to lineaments, and rainfall were selected for landslide analysis. For validation and comparison, statistical index-based methods and the receiver operating characteristic curve have been used. Analysis results show that all these models have good performance for landslide spatial prediction but the SMOSVM model has the highest predictive capability, followed by the VFI model, and the LR model, respectively. Thus, SMOSVM is a better model for landslide prediction and can be used for landslide susceptibility mapping of landslide-prone areas.     

Innovative landslide susceptibility mapping supported by geomorphon and geographical detector methods

Landslides are among the most common and dangerous natural hazards in mountainous regions that can cause damage to properties and loss of lives. Landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) is a critical tool for preventing or mitigating the negative impacts of landslides. Although many previous studies have employed various statistical methods to produce quantitative maps of the landslide susceptibility index (LSI) based on inventories of past landslides and contributing factors, they are mostly ad hoc to a specific area and their success has been hindered by the lack of a methodology that could produce the right mapping units at proper scale and by the lack of a general framework for objectively accounting for the differing contribution of various preparatory factors. This paper addresses these issues by integrating the geomorphon and geographical detector methods into LSM to improve its performance. The geomorphon method, an innovative pattern recognition approach for identifying landform elements based on the line of sight concept, is adapted to delineate ridge lines and valley lines to form slope units at self-adjusted spatial scale suitable for LSM. The geographical detector method, a spatial variance analysis method, is integrated to objectively assign the weights of contributing factors for LSM. Applying the new integrated approach to I-Lan, Taiwan produced very significant improvement in LSI mapping performance than a previous model, especially in highly susceptible areas. The new method offers a general framework for better mapping landslide susceptibility and mitigating its negative impacts.     

Landslide susceptibility zonation mapping using logistic regression and its validation in Hashtchin Region,northwest of Iran

Landslide susceptibility zonation mapping assists researchers greatly to understand the spatial distribution of slope failure probability in a region. Being extremely useful in reducing landslide hazards, such maps could simply be produced using both qualitative and quantitative methods. In the present study, a multivariate statistical method called ‘logistic regression’ was used to assess landslide susceptibility in Hashtchin region, situated in west of Alborz Mountainsnorthwest of Iran. In this study, two independent variables, categorical (predictor) and continuous, were drawn on together in the model. To identify the region’s landslides use was made of aerial photographs, field studies and topographic maps. To prepare the database of factors affecting the region’s landslides and to determine landslide zones, geographic information system (GIS) was used. Using such information, landslide susceptibility modeling was accomplished. The data related to factors causing landslides were extracted as independent variables in each cell (in 50 m×50 m cells). Then, the whole data were input into the SPSS, Version 18. The prepared database was later analyzed using logistic regression, the forward stepwise method and based on maximum likelihood estimation. Regression equation was determined using obtained constants and coefficients and the landslide susceptibility of the area in grid-cells (pixels) was computed between 0 and 0.9954. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the accuracy of the logistic regression model. The predicting ability of the model was 84.1% given the area under ROC curve. Finally, the degree of success of landslide susceptibility zonation mapping was estimated to be 79%.     

Landslide susceptibility mapping based on GIS and information value model for the Chencang District of Baoji,China

The main objective of this study was to apply a statistical (information value) model using geographic information system (GIS) to the Chencang District of Baoji, China. Landslide locations within the study area were identified using reports and aerial photographs, and a field survey. A total of 120 landslides were mapped, of which 84 (70 %) were randomly selected for building the landslide susceptibility model. The remaining 36 (30 %) were used for model validation. We considered a total of 10 potential factors that predispose an area to a landslide for the landslide susceptibility mapping. These included slope degree, altitude, slope aspect, plan curvature, geomorphology, distance from faults, lithology, land use, mean annual rainfall, and peak ground acceleration. Following an analysis of these factors, a landslide susceptibility map was produced using the information value model with GIS. The resulting landslide susceptibility index was divided into five classes (very high, high, moderate, low, and very low) using the natural breaks method. The corresponding distribution area percentages were 29.22, 25.14, 15.66, 15.60, and 14.38 %, respectively. Finally, landslide locations were used to validate the results of the landslide susceptibility map using areas under the curve (AUC). The AUC plot showed that the susceptibility map had a success rate of 81.79 % and a prediction accuracy of 82.95 %. Based on the results of the AUC evaluation, the landslide susceptibility map produced using the information value model exhibited good performance.     

Mapping landslide susceptibility with frequency ratio,statistical index,and weights of evidence models: a case study in northern Iran

The main objective of this study is to investigate potential application of frequency ratio (FR), weights of evidence (WoE), and statistical index (SI) models for landslide susceptibility mapping in a part of Mazandaran Province, Iran. First, a landslide inventory map was constructed from various sources. The landslide inventory map was then randomly divided in a ratio of 70/30 for training and validation of the models, respectively. Second, 13 landslide conditioning factors including slope degree, slope aspect, altitude, plan curvature, stream power index, topographic wetness index, sediment transport index, topographic roughness index, lithology, distance from streams, faults, roads, and land use type were prepared, and the relationships between these factors and the landslide inventory map were extracted by using the mentioned models. Subsequently, the multi-class weighted factors were used to generate landslide susceptibility maps. Finally, the susceptibility maps were verified and compared using several methods including receiver operating characteristic curve with the areas under the curve (AUC), landslide density, and spatially agreed area analyses. The success rate curve showed that the AUC for FR, WoE, and SI models was 81.51, 79.43, and 81.27, respectively. The prediction rate curve demonstrated that the AUC achieved by the three models was 80.44, 77.94, and 79.55, respectively. Although the sensitivity analysis using the FR model revealed that the modeling process was sensitive to input factors, the accuracy results suggest that the three models used in this study can be effective approaches for landslide susceptibility mapping in Mazandaran Province, and the resultant susceptibility maps are trustworthy for hazard mitigation strategies.     

Landslide susceptibility assessment: what are the effects of mapping unit and mapping method?

Landslide susceptibility assessment forms the basis of any hazard mapping, which is one of the essential parts of quantitative risk mapping. For the same study area, different susceptibility maps can be achieved depending on the type of susceptibility mapping methods, mapping unit, and scale. Although there are various methods of obtaining susceptibility maps, the efficiency and performance of each method should be evaluated. In this study the effect of mapping unit and susceptibility mapping method on landslide susceptibility assessment is investigated. When analyzing the effect of susceptibility mapping method, logistic regression (LR) which is widely used in landslide susceptibility mapping and, spatial regression (SR), which have not been used for landslide susceptibility mapping, are selected. The susceptibility maps with logistic and spatial regression models are obtained using two different mapping units namely slope unit-based and grid-based mapping units. The procedure for investigation of effect of mapping unit on different susceptibility mapping methods is applied to Kumluca watershed, in Bartin Province of Western Black Sea Region, Turkey. 18 factor maps are prepared for landslide susceptibility assessment in the study region. Geographic information systems and remote sensing techniques are used to create the landslide factor maps, to obtain susceptibility maps and to compare the results. The relative operating characteristics (ROC) curve is used to compare the predictive abilities of each model and mapping unit and also the accuracy is evaluated depending on the observations made during field surveys. By analyzing the area under the ROC curve for grid-based and slope unit-based mapping units, it can be concluded that SR model provide better predictive performance (0.774 in grids and 0.898 in slope units) as compared to the LR model (0.744 in grids and 0.820 in slope units). This result is also supported by the accuracy analysis. For both mapping units, the SR model provides more accurate result (0.55 for grids and 0.57 for slope units) than the LR model (0.50 for grids and 0.48 for slopes). The main reason for this better performance is that the spatial correlations between the mapping units are incorporated into the model in SR while this fact is not considered in LR model.     

The assessment of landslide susceptibility mapping using random forest and decision tree methods in the Three Gorges Reservoir area,China

Landslide susceptibility mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for landslide prevention and reduction. At present, research into landslide susceptibility mapping has begun to combine machine learning with remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. The random forest model is a new integrated classification method, but its application to landslide susceptibility mapping remains limited. Landslides represent a serious threat to the lives and property of people living in the Zigui–Badong area in the Three Gorges region of China, as well as to the operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir. However, the geological structure of this region is complex, involving steep mountains and deep valleys. The purpose of the current study is to produce a landslide susceptibility map of the Zigui–Badong area using a random forest model, multisource data, GIS, and remote sensing data. In total, 300 pre-existing landslide locations were obtained from a landslide inventory map. These landslides were identified using visual interpretation of high-resolution remote sensing images, topographic and geologic data, and extensive field surveys. The occurrence of landslides is closely related to a series of environmental parameters. Topographic, geologic, Landsat-8 image, raining data, and seismic data were used as the primary data sources to extract the geo-environmental factors influencing landslides. Thirty-four layers of causative factors were prepared as predictor variables, which can mainly be categorized as topographic, geological, hydrological, land cover, and environmental trigger parameters. The random forest method is an ensemble classification technique that extends diversity among the classification trees by resampling the data with replacement and randomly changing the predictive variable sets during the different tree induction processes. A random forest model was adopted to calculate the quantitative relationships between the landslide-conditioning factors and the landslide inventory map and then generate a landslide susceptibility map. The analytical results were compared with known landslide locations in terms of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. The random forest model has an area ratio of 86.10%. In contrast to the random forest (whole factors, WF), random forest (12 major factors, 12F), decision tree (WF), decision tree (12F), the final result shows that random forest (12F) has a higher prediction accuracy. Meanwhile, the random forest models have higher prediction accuracy than the decision tree model. Subsequently, the landslide susceptibility map was classified into five classes (very low, low, moderate, high, and very high). The results demonstrate that the random forest model achieved a reasonable accuracy in landslide susceptibility mapping. The landslide hazard zone information will be useful for general development planning and landslide risk management.     

Landslide Research at the British Geological Survey:Capture,Storage and Interpretation on a National and Site-Specific Scale

Abstract: Landslide research at the British Geological Survey (BGS) is carried out through a number of activities, including surveying, database development and real-time monitoring of landslides. Landslide mapping across the UK has been carried out since BGS started geological mapping in 1835. Today, BGS geologists use a combination of remote sensing and ground-based investigations to survey landslides. The development of waterproof tablet computers (BGS·SIGMAmobile), with inbuilt GPS and GIS for field data capture provides an accurate and rapid mapping methodology for field surveys. Regional and national mapping of landslides is carried out in conjunction with site-specific monitoring, using terrestrial LiDAR and differential GPS technologies, which BGS has successfully developed for this application. In addition to surface monitoring, BGS is currently developing geophysical ground-imaging systems for landslide monitoring, which provide real-time information on subsurface changes prior to failure events. BGS’s mapping and monitoring activities directly feed into the BGS National Landslide Database, the most extensive source of information on landslides in Great Britain. It currently holds over 14?000 records of landslide events. By combining BGS’s corporate datasets with expert knowledge, BGS has developed a landslide hazard assessment tool, GeoSure, which provides information on the relative landslide hazard susceptibility at national scale.     

Assessment of co-seismic landslide susceptibility using LR and ANCOVA in Barpak region,Nepal

Nepal was affected by a catastrophic earthquake with Mw 7.8 on 25th April, 2015 with its epicenter in the central part of Barpak village. A number of co-seismic landslides were triggered by the main shock of the event and associated aftershocks. Due to the rugged topography and vicinity of the main shock, the village was extremely affected by co-seismic landslides. In total, 59 landslides were identified using Google Earth and were verified during the field survey in Barpak village. Furthermore, 11 conditioning factors, including Peak ground acceleration (PGA), epicenter proximity, fault proximity, geology, slope, elevation, plan curvature, profile curvature, topographic wetness index, drainage proximity and the sediment transport index were selected as independent variables for analysis. In this study, logistic regression (LR) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models were used and their performance was assessed. Finally, the landslide susceptibility classes were produced and an evaluation of models was done by using receiver operating characteristic curves. The area under the curve for LR and ANCOVA showed 85.38 and 78.4% accuracy, respectively. Based on the overall assessments, the LR model was more accurate than the ANCOVA model for co-seismic landslide prediction in the study area. The result of this study can be used to mitigate landslide-induced hazards and for land-use planning.     

GIS-based landslide susceptibility for Arsin-Yomra (Trabzon,North Turkey) region

The purpose of this study is to assess the susceptibility of landslides around Yomra and Arsin towns near Trabzon, in northeast of Turkey, using a geographical information system (GIS). Landslide inventory of the area was made by detailed field surveys and the analyses of the topographical map. The landslide triggering factors are considered to be slope angle, slope aspect, distance from drainage, distance from roads and the weathered lithological units, which were called as “geotechnical units” in the study. Idrisi and ArcGIS packages manipulated all the collected data. Logistic regression (LR) and weighted linear combination (WLC) statistical methods were used to create a landslide susceptibility map for the study area. The results were assessed within the scope of two different points: (a) effectiveness of the methods used and (b) effectiveness of the environmental casual parameters influencing the landslides. The results showed that the WLC model is more suitable than the LR model. Regarding the casual parameters, geotechnical units and slopes were found to be the most important variables for estimating the landslide susceptibility in the study area.     

GIS-based statistical analysis of the spatial distribution of earthquake-induced landslides in the island of Lefkada, Ionian Islands, Greece

This is the first landslide inventory map in the island of Lefkada integrating satellite imagery and reports from field surveys. In particular, satellite imagery acquired before and after the 2003 earthquake were collected and interpreted with the results of the field survey that took place 1 week after this strong (Mw?=?6.3) event. The developed inventory map indicates that the density of landslides decreases from west to east. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of landslides was statistically analyzed in relation to the geology and topography for investigating their influence to landsliding. This was accomplished by overlaying these causal factors as thematic layers with landslide distribution data. Afterwards, weight values of each factor were calculated using the landslide index method and a landslide susceptibility map was developed. The susceptibility map indicates that the highest susceptibility class accounts for 38 % of the total landslide activity, while the three highest classes that cover the 10 % of the surface area, accounting for almost the 85 % of the active landslides. Our model was validated by applying the approaches of success and prediction rate to the dataset of landslides that was previously divided into two groups based on temporal criteria, estimation and validation group. The outcome of the validation dataset was that the highest susceptibility class concentrates 18 % of the total landslide activity. However, taking into account the frequency of landslides within the three highest susceptibility classes, more than 85 %, the model is characterized as reliable for a regional assessment of earthquake-induced landslides hazard.     

Landslide susceptibility mapping using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in Tehri reservoir rim region,Uttarakhand

A comprehensive use of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method in landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) has been presented for rim region of Tehri reservoir. Using remote sensing data, various landslide causative factors responsible for inducing instability in the area were derived. Ancillary data such as geological map, soil map, and topographic map were also considered along with remote sensing data. Exhaustive field checks were performed to define the credibility of the random landslide conditioning factors considered in this study. Apart from universally acceptable inherent causative factors used in the susceptibility mapping, others such as impact of reservoir impoundment on terrain, topographic wetness index and stream power index were found to be important causative factors in rim region of the Tehri reservoir. The AHP method was used to acquire weights of factors and their classes respectively. Weights achieved from AHP method matched with the existing field conditions. Acceptable consistency ratio (CR) value was achieved for each AHP matrix. Weights of each factor were integrated with weighted sum technique and a landslide susceptibility index map was generated. Jenk’s natural break classifier was used to classify LSI map into very low, low, moderate, high and very high landslide susceptible classes. Validation of the susceptibility map was performed using cumulative percentage/success rate curve technique. Area under curve value of the success rate curve was converted to percentage validation accuracy and a reasonable 78.7% validation accuracy was achieved.     

LiDAR-supported prediction of slope failures using an integrated ensemble weights-of-evidence and analytical hierarchy process

The present study investigates a potential application of different resolution topographic data obtained from airborne LiDAR and an integrated ensemble weight-of-evidence and analytic hierarchy process (WoE–AHP) model to spatially predict slope failures. Previously failed slopes of the Pellizzano (Italy) were remotely mapped and divided into two subsets for training and testing purposes. 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, and 20 m topographic data were processed to extract nine terrain attributes identified as conditioning factors for landslides: slope degree, aspect, altitude, plan curvature, profile curvature, stream power index, topographic wetness index, sediment transport index, and topographic roughness index. Landslide (slope failure) susceptibility maps were produced using a single WoE (Model 1), an ensemble WoE–AHP model that used all conditioning factors (Model 2), and an ensemble WoE–AHP model that only used highly nominated conditioning factors (Model 3). The validation results proved the efficiency of high-resolution (≤ 5 m) topographic data and the ensemble model, particularly when all factors were used in the modeling process (Model 2). The average success rates and prediction rates for Model 2 that used ≤ 5 m resolution datasets were 84.26 and 82.78%, respectively. The finding presented in this paper can aid in planning more efficient LiDAR surveys and the handling of large datasets, and in gaining a better understanding of the nature of the predictive models.     

Applying deep learning and benchmark machine learning algorithms for landslide susceptibility modelling in Rorachu river basin of Sikkim Himalaya,India

Landslide is considered as one of the most severe threats to human life and property in the hilly areas of the world. The number of landslides and the level of damage across the globe has been increasing over time. Therefore, landslide management is essential to maintain the natural and socio-economic dynamics of the hilly region. Rorachu river basin is one of the most landslide-prone areas of the Sikkim selected for the present study. The prime goal of the study is to prepare landslide susceptibility maps(LSMs) using computer-based advanced machine learning techniques and compare the performance of the models.To properly understand the existing spatial relation with the landslide, twenty factors, including triggering and causative factors, were selected. A deep learning algorithm viz. convolutional neural network model(CNN) and three popular machine learning techniques, i.e., random forest model(RF), artificial neural network model(ANN), and bagging model, were employed to prepare the LSMs. Two separate datasets including training and validation were designed by randomly taken landslide and nonlandslide points. A ratio of 70:30 was considered for the selection of both training and validation points.Multicollinearity was assessed by tolerance and variance inflation factor, and the role of individual conditioning factors was estimated using information gain ratio. The result reveals that there is no severe multicollinearity among the landslide conditioning factors, and the triggering factor rainfall appeared as the leading cause of the landslide. Based on the final prediction values of each model, LSM was constructed and successfully portioned into five distinct classes, like very low, low, moderate, high, and very high susceptibility. The susceptibility class-wise distribution of landslides shows that more than 90% of the landslide area falls under higher landslide susceptibility grades. The precision of models was examined using the area under the curve(AUC) of the receiver operating characteristics(ROC) curve and statistical methods like root mean square error(RMSE) and mean absolute error(MAE). In both datasets(training and validation), the CNN model achieved the maximum AUC value of 0.903 and 0.939, respectively. The lowest value of RMSE and MAE also reveals the better performance of the CNN model. So, it can be concluded that all the models have performed well, but the CNN model has outperformed the other models in terms of precision.     

Landslide susceptibility mapping using LiDAR and DMC data: a case study in the Three Gorges area, China

The objective of this study is to map landslide susceptibility in Zigui segment of the Yangtze Three Gorges area that is known as one of the most landslide-prone areas in China by using data from light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and digital mapping camera (DMC). The likelihood ratio (LR) and logistic regression model (LRM) were used in this study. The work is divided into three phases. The first phase consists of data processing and analysis. In this phase, LiDAR and DMC data and geological maps were processed, and the landslide-controlling factors were derived such as landslide density, digital elevation model (DEM), slope angle, aspect, lithology, land use and distance from drainage. Among these, the landslide inventories, land use and drainage were constructed with both LiDAR and DMC data; DEM, slope angle and aspect were constructed with LiDAR data; lithology was taken from the 1:250,000 scale geological maps. The second phase is the logistic regression analysis. In this phase, the LR was applied to find the correlation between the landslide locations and the landslide-controlling factors, whereas the LRM was used to predict the occurrence of landslides based on six factors. To calculate the coefficients of LRM, 13,290,553 pixels was used, 29.5 % of the total pixels. The logical regression coefficients of landslide-controlling factors were obtained by logical regression analysis with SPSS 17.0 software. The accuracy of the LRM was 88.8 % on the whole. The third phase is landslide susceptibility mapping and verification. The mapping result was verified using the landslide location data, and 64.4 % landslide pixels distributed in “extremely high” zone and “high” zone; in addition, verification was performed using a success rate curve. The verification result show clearly that landslide susceptibility zones were in close agreement with actual landslide areas in the field. It is also shown that the factors that were applied in this study are appropriate; lithology, elevation and distance from drainage are primary factors for the landslide susceptibility mapping in the area, while slope angle, aspect and land use are secondary.     

Application and verification of a fractal approach to landslide susceptibility mapping

Landslide susceptibility mapping is essential for land-use activities and management decision making in hilly or mountainous regions. The existing approaches to landslide susceptibility zoning and mapping require many different types of data. In this study, we propose a fractal method to map landslide susceptibility using historical landslide inventories only. The spatial distribution of landslides is generally not uniform, but instead clustered at many different scales. In the method, we measure the degree of spatial clustering of existing landslides in a region using a box-counting method and apply the derived fractal clustering relation to produce a landslide susceptibility map by means of GIS-supported spatial analysis. The method is illustrated by two examples at different regional scales using the landslides inventory data from Zhejiang Province, China, where the landslides are mainly triggered by rainfall. In the illustrative examples, the landslides from the inventory are divided into two time periods: The landslides in the first period are used to produce a landslide susceptibility map, and those in the late period are taken as validation samples for examining the predictive capability of the landslide susceptibility maps. These examples demonstrate that the landslide susceptibility map created by the proposed technique is reliable.