A heuristic multi-criteria classification approach incorporating data quality information for choropleth mapping

ABSTRACT

Despite conceptual and technology advancements in cartography over the decades, choropleth map design and classification fail to address a fundamental issue: estimates that are statistically indifferent may be assigned to different classes on maps or vice versa. Recently, the class separability concept was introduced as a map classification criterion to evaluate the likelihood that estimates in two classes are statistical different. Unfortunately, choropleth maps created according to the separability criterion usually have highly unbalanced classes. To produce reasonably separable but more balanced classes, we propose a heuristic classification approach to consider not just the class separability criterion but also other classification criteria such as evenness and intra-class variability. A geovisual-analytic package was developed to support the heuristic mapping process to evaluate the trade-off between relevant criteria and to select the most preferable classification. Class break values can be adjusted to improve the performance of a classification.     

Combined use of socio economic analysis,remote sensing and GIS data for landslide hazard mapping using ANN

The term landslide includes a wide range of ground movements, such as slides, falls, flows etc. mainly based on gravity with the aid of several conditioning and triggering factors. Particularly in the last two decades, there has been an increasing international interest in the landslide susceptibility, hazard or risk assessments. In this paper we present a combined use of socioeconomic, remote sensing and GIS data for developing a technique for landslide susceptibility mapping using artificial neural networks and then to apply the technique to the selected study areas at Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu and to analyze the socio economic impact in the landslide locations.     

Evaluation of environmental parameters in logistic regression models for landslide susceptibility mapping

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine how well the landslide susceptibility parameters, obtained by data-dependent statistical models, matched with the parameters used in the literature. In order to achieve this goal, 20 different environmental parameters were mapped in a well-studied landslide-prone area, the Asarsuyu catchment in northwest Turkey. A total of 4400 seed cells were generated from 47 different landslides and merged with different attributes of 20 different environmental causative variables into a database. In order to run a series of logistic regression models, different random landslide-free sample sets were produced and combined with seed cells. Different susceptibility maps were created with an average success rate of nearly 80%. The coherence among the models showed spatial correlations greater than 90%. Models converged in the parameter selection peculiarly, in that the same nine of 20 were chosen by different logistic regression models. Among these nine parameters, lithology, geological structure (distance/density), landcover-landuse, and slope angle were common parameters selected by both the regression models and literature. Accuracy assessment of the logistic models was assessed by absolute methods. All models were field checked with the landslides resulting from the 12 November 1999, Kayna?li Earthquake (Ms = 7.2).     

An assessment on the use of Terra ASTER L3A data in landslide susceptibility mapping

The main purpose of the present study is to evaluate the potential use of Terra ASTER data—the L3A DEM and its derivatives in landslide susceptibility mapping. For the purpose, an appropriate application site from the Western Black Sea region of Turkey—the Kelemen catchment area was selected. During the analyses, a two-stage comparative evaluation was carried out. In the first stage, the differences between the DEMs obtained from Terra ASTER L3A data and the conventional topographic data; and their first and second derivatives were investigated. Subsequently, different susceptibility maps were produced by using the DEMs and the topographic attributes obtained from both source of data in addition to the spectral information acquired from satellite sensor. According to the results of the comparative evaluations, a strong correlation between Terra ASTER L3A DEM and the conventional topographic data was obtained. However, depending on the increment of the degree of the derivative, an evident decrease in the spatial correlations was observed. On the contrary, the final model performance, prediction capacity, and the spatial performance statistics for the landslide susceptibility maps produced by using both source of data were found as very high and close to each other.     

构造断面法在滑坡变形监测数据处理中的应用

数据处理是滑坡变形监测的一项重要工作,目前应用的滑坡变形监测数据处理方法很多。针对一些方法的不足之处,文中介绍了构造断面分析法处理滑坡体变形监测数据的原理和方法,通过举证在积石峡水电站I^#滑坡体变形监测数据处理中的应用,证实该方法的可行性。     

InSAR技术的天水市活动性滑坡灾害识别与分析

针对天水市大型或严重破坏的黄土滑坡调查与分析较少,潜在活动蠕变型滑坡的空间分布与未来发展趋势不明的问题,该文基于InSAR遥感技术对天水市活动性滑坡进行了解译识别、成因分析与调查核实,利用SBAS-InSAR计算的时序形变信息判断滑坡未来的发展趋势.研究区内发现了103处活动性灾害,其中69处为黄土滑坡、34处地面沉降...     

Spatial model integration for shallow landslide susceptibility and its runout using a GIS-based approach in Yongin,Korea

Rainfall-triggered shallow landslide is very common in Korean mountains and the socioeconomic impact is much higher than in the past due to population pressure in hazardous zones. Present study is an attempt toward the development of a methodology for the integration of shallow landslide susceptibility zones and runout zones that could be reached by mobilized mass. Landslide occurrence areas in Yongin were determined based on the interpretation of aerial photographs and extensive field surveys. Nineteen landslide-related factors maps were collected and analysed in geographic information system environment. Among 109 identified landslides, about 85% randomly selected training landslide data from inventory map was used to generate an evidential belief function model and remaining 15% landslides were used to validate the shallow landslide susceptibility map. The resulting susceptibility map had a success rate of 89.2% and a predictive accuracy of 92.1%. A runout propagation from high susceptible area was obtained from the modified multiple-flow direction algorithm. A matrix was used to integrate the shallow landslide susceptibility classes and the runout probable zone. Thus, each pixel had a susceptibility class in relation to its failure probability and runout susceptibility class. The study of landslide potential and its propagation can be used to obtain a spatial prediction for landslides, which could contribute to landslide risk mitigation.     

Satellite image analysis using crowdsourcing data for collaborative mapping: current and opportunities

ABSTRACT

Researchers are continually finding new applications of satellite images because of the growing number of high-resolution images with wide spatial coverage. However, the cost of these images is sometimes high, and their temporal resolution is relatively coarse. Crowdsourcing is an increasingly common source of data that takes advantage of local stakeholder knowledge and that provides a higher frequency of data. The complementarity of these two data sources suggests there is great potential for mutually beneficial integration. Unfortunately, there are still important gaps in crowdsourced satellite image analysis by means of crowdsourcing in areas such as land cover classification and emergency management. In this paper, we summarize recent efforts, and discuss the challenges and prospects of satellite image analysis for geospatial applications using crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing can be used to improve satellite image analysis and satellite images can be used to organize crowdsourced efforts for collaborative mapping.     

Investigation of automatic feature weighting methods (Fisher,Chi-square and Relief-F) for landslide susceptibility mapping

In landslide susceptibility mapping, factor weights have been usually determined by expert judgements. A novel methodology for weighting landslide causative factors by integrating statistical feature weighting algorithms was proposed. The primary focus of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of automatic feature weighting algorithms, namely Fisher, Chi-square and Relief-F algorithms. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was used as a benchmark method to compare the performances of the weighting algorithms. All weighted factors were tested using factor-weighted overlay method, and quality of these maps was assessed using overall accuracy, area under the ROC curve (AUC) and success rate curve. In addition, Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test was applied to evaluate statistical differences between both estimated overall accuracies and AUCs, respectively. Results showed that the weights determined by feature weighting methods outperformed the conventional AHP method by about 6% and this level of differences was found to be statistically significant.     

A novel hybrid approach of Bayesian Logistic Regression and its ensembles for landslide susceptibility assessment

Abstract

A novel artificial intelligence approach of Bayesian Logistic Regression (BLR) and its ensembles [Random Subspace (RS), Adaboost (AB), Multiboost (MB) and Bagging] was introduced for landslide susceptibility mapping in a part of Kamyaran city in Kurdistan Province, Iran. A spatial database was generated which includes a total of 60 landslide locations and a set of conditioning factors tested by the Information Gain Ratio technique. Performance of these models was evaluated using the area under the ROC curve (AUROC) and statistical index-based methods. Results showed that the hybrid ensemble models could significantly improve the performance of the base classifier of BLR (AUROC?=?0.930). However, RS model (AUROC?=?0.975) had the highest performance in comparison to other landslide ensemble models, followed by Bagging (AUROC?=?0.972), MB (AUROC?=?0.970) and AB (AUROC?=?0.957) models, respectively.     

A GIS-based comparative study of Dempster-Shafer,logistic regression and artificial neural network models for landslide susceptibility mapping

The main aim of present study is to compare three GIS-based models, namely Dempster–Shafer (DS), logistic regression (LR) and artificial neural network (ANN) models for landslide susceptibility mapping in the Shangzhou District of Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province, China. At First, landslide locations were identified by aerial photographs and supported by field surveys, and a total of 145 landslide locations were mapped in the study area. Subsequently, the landslide inventory was randomly divided into two parts (70/30) using Hawths Tools in ArcGIS 10.0 for training and validation purposes, respectively. In the present study, 14 landslide conditioning factors such as altitude, slope angle, slope aspect, topographic wetness index, sediment transport index, stream power index, plan curvature, profile curvature, lithology, rainfall, distance to rivers, distance to roads, distance to faults and normalized different vegetation index were used to detect the most susceptible areas. In the next step, landslide susceptible areas were mapped using the DS, LR and ANN models based on landslide conditioning factors. Finally, the accuracies of the landslide susceptibility maps produced from the three models were verified using the area under the curve (AUC). The validation results showed that the landslide susceptibility map generated by the ANN model has the highest training accuracy (73.19%), followed by the LR model (71.37%), and the DS model (66.42%). Similarly, the AUC plot for prediction accuracy presents that ANN model has the highest accuracy (69.62%), followed by the LR model (68.94%), and the DS model (61.39%). According to the validation results of the AUC curves, the map produced by these models exhibits the satisfactory properties.     

Application of frequency ratio,weights of evidence and evidential belief function models in landslide susceptibility mapping

The landslide hazard occurred in Taibai County has the characteristics of the typical landslides in mountain hinterland. The slopes mainly consist of residual sediments and locate along the highway. Most of them are in the less stable state and in high risk during rainfall in flood season especially. The main purpose of this paper is to produce landslide susceptibility maps for Taibai County (China). In the first stage, a landslide inventory map and the input layers of the landslide conditioning factors were prepared in the geographic information system supported by field investigations and remote sensing data. The landslides conditioning factors considered for the study area were slope angle, altitude, slope aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature, distance to faults, distance to rivers, distance to roads, normalized difference vegetation index, lithological unit, rainfall and land use. Subsequently, the thematic data layers of conditioning factors were integrated by frequency ratio (FR), weights of evidence (WOE) and evidential belief function (EBF) models. As a result, landslide susceptibility maps were obtained. In order to compare the predictive ability of these three models, a validation procedure was conducted. The curves of cumulative area percentage of ordered index values vs. the cumulative percentage of landslide numbers were plotted and the values of area under the curve (AUC) were calculated. The predictive ability was characterized by the AUC values and it indicates that all these models considered have relatively similar and high accuracies. The success rate of FR, WOE and EBF models was 0.9161, 0.9132 and 0.9129, while the prediction rate of the three models was 0.9061, 0.9052 and 0.9007, respectively. Considering the accuracy and simplicity comprehensively, the FR model is the optimum method. These landslide susceptibility maps can be used for preliminary land use planning and hazard mitigation purpose.     

A novel ensemble approach of bivariate statistical-based logistic model tree classifier for landslide susceptibility assessment

Abstract

This study addresses landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) using a novel ensemble approach of using a bivariate statistical method (weights of evidence [WoE] and evidential belief function [EBF])-based logistic model tree (LMT) classifier. The performance and prediction capability of the ensemble models were assessed using the area under the ROC curve (AUROC), standard error, 95% confidence intervals and significance level P. Model performance analyses indicated that the AUROC values of the WoE–LMT ensemble model using the training and validation data-sets were 86.02 and 85.9%, respectively, whereas those of the EBF–LMT ensemble model were 88.2 and 87.8%, respectively. On the other hand, the AUC curves for the four landslide susceptibility maps indicated that the AUC values of the ensemble models of WoE–LMT (85.11 and 83.98%) and EBF–LMT (86.21 and 85.23%) could improve the performance and prediction accuracy of single WoE (84.23 and 82.46%) and EBF (85.39 and 81.33%) models for the training and validation data-sets.     

Lithological studies of western foothills of Himalaya from Remotely Sensed data: A computer image analysis approach

Digital sensing systems, on board remote sensing satelites, have provided a very powerful tool for conducting earth resources studies using digital computers. This paper mainly describes various digital techniques that are applied on Remotely Sensed data to extract various landuse features and to identify, broadly, geological rock types using Dipix Image Processing System. A variety of image enhancement algorithms are used to delineate four major Geological groups and several landuse features such as drainage, river, canal, vegetational pattern, railways, road etc. Some of the landuse features have been of help in identifying and marking of four major geological groups namely Lower pre-Cambrian rocks, Upper and Lower Siwaliks and recent alluvial deposits.     

Survey-gap analysis for botanical research using integrated approach through taxonomical data and geoinformatics

India is one of the 12 mega biodiversity countries in the world. There are still many areas where inadequate information on plant wealth is available. Gap area prioritization is of utmost concern to understand the species richness of different parts of India. In this context survey-gap analysis was carried out to assess exploration status and to prioritise areas using integrated approach through taxonomical data and geoinformatics. In order to highlight the gaps in botanical exploration in the country, the present case study was conducted in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh. A grid size of 5′×5′ has been prepared to analyse the exploration status. The results indicated that most parts of study area have been under-explored and unexplored. Of the 200 grids, only one grid has been well explored with species collections of above 100. The study brought to light that moist deciduous forests were not covered during floristic studies. Comparative analysis with disturbance index and biological richness maps evidently points out that explorations were undertaken only in high disturbed zones and areas of low to medium biological richness. This geospatial analysis clearly points the need for more attention to the exploration of tropical forests in India. There is a need of systematic botanical studies to prioritise the conservation strategies of varied natural ecosystems. It is recommended for national level survey-gap analysis as an important step to determine the floristic wealth, species representativeness and distribution.     

Improving the reliability of landslide susceptibility mapping through spatial uncertainty analysis: a case study of Al Hoceima,Northern Morocco

This paper aims at providing an answer as to whether generalization obtained with data-driven modelling can be used to gauge the plausibility of the physically based (PB) model’s prediction. Two statistical models namely; Weight of Evidence (WofE) and Logistic Regression (LR), and a PB model using the infinite slope assumptions were evaluated and compared with respect to their abilities to predict susceptible areas to shallow landslides at the 1:10.000 urban scale. Threshold-dependent performance metrics showed that the three methods produced statistically comparable results in terms of success and prediction rates. However, with the Area Under the receiver operator Curve (AUC), statistical models are more accurate (88.7 and 84.6% for LR and WofE, respectively) than the PB model (only 69.8%). Nevertheless, in such data-sparse situation, the usual approaches for validation, i.e. comparing observed with predicted data, are insufficient, formal uncertainty analysis (UA) is a means for evaluating the validity and reliability of the model. We then refitted the PB model using a stochastic modification of the infinite slope stability model input scheme using Monte Carlo (MC) method backed with sensitivity analysis (SA). For statistical models, we used an informal Student t-test for estimating the certainty of the predicted probability (PP) at each location. Both modelling outputs independently show a high validity; and whereas the level of confidence in LR and WofE models remained the same after performance re-evaluation, the accuracy of the PB model showed an improvement (AUC = 72%). This result is reasonable and provides a further validation of PB model. So, in urban slope analysis, where PB diagnostic is necessary, statistical and PB modelling may play equally supportive roles in landslide hazard assessment.     

Statistical analysis and tectonic interpretation of the remotely sensed lineament fabric data associated with the North Almora Thrust,Garhwal Himalaya,India

A geostatistical analysis of the remotely-sensed lineament fabric data associated with the North Almora Thrust of Garhwal Himalaya has been carried out The analysis of data provided 18 major orientations of the lineament density girdles. Further statistical treatment of these derived lineaments using the method of analysts of directional data indicates that the lineaments can be classified into genetic groups. The result indicates that the North Almora Thrust and Kaliasaur Fault are not genetically related and occurred in separate phases of tectonic activities. The results also show that the Alaknanda river is flowing through a tectonically-controlled valley. The study suggests the suitability of statistical methods in lineament-fabric-data analysis for tectonic interpretations.     

顾及样本优化选择的多核支持向量机滑坡灾害易发性分析评价

滑坡灾害易发性分析评价对地质灾害的防治与管理具有重要意义。针对滑坡灾害样本选择策略,单核支持向量机多特征映射不合理的问题,本文提出顾及样本优化选择的多核支持向量机(multiple kernel support vector machine,MKSVM)滑坡灾害易发性分析评价方法。为了保证样本平衡性并提高负样本的合理性,采用相对频率比(relative frequency,RF)综合评价各状态对于滑坡灾害易发性影响的重要程度,实现各评价因子状态的合理划分;利用确定性系数法(certainty factor,CF)计算各评价因子各状态分级影响滑坡灾害的敏感性,并在此基础上进行加权求和得到各栅格单元的滑坡灾害易发性指数,在滑坡灾害易发性指数极低和低易发区内随机选择与滑坡灾害点数目一致的非滑坡灾害点作为负样本数据。利用MKSVM对各特征空间最优核函数进行线性组合,解决了单一核函数映射不合理的问题,提高了模型的分类准确率和预测精度。以湖南省湘西土家族苗族自治州为研究区,从滑坡灾害易发性分区图、分区统计及评价模型精度3个方面对CF样本策略的MKSVM模型、CF样本策略的单核SVM模型、随机样本策略的MKSVM模型、随机样本策略的单核SVM模型进行了对比分析。结果表明,4种模型的受试者工作特征曲线(receiver operating characteristic,ROC)下的面积(area under curve,AUC)分别为0.859、0.809、0.798、0.766,验证了CF样本策略的合理性、有效性及MKSVM模型的可靠性。     

Remote gully erosion mapping using aster data and geomorphologic analysis in the Main Ethiopian Rift

The Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) is an area of extreme topography underlain by post-Miocene volcanic rocks, Jurassic limestone and a Precambrian basement. A prime concern is the rapid expansion of wide gullies that are impinging on agricultural land. We investigate the potential contribution of Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data and geomorphologic parameters to discern patterns and features of gully erosion in the MER. Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Minimum Distance (MD) classifiers are used to extract different gully shapes and patterns. Several spatial textures based on Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrices (GLCMs) are then generated. Afterwards, the same classifiers are applied to the ASTER data combined with the spatial texture information. We used geomorphologic parameters extracted from SRTM and ASTER DEMs to describe the geomorphologic setting and the gullies’ shapes. The classifications show accuracies varying between 67% and 89%. Maps derived from this quantitative analysis allow the monitoring and mapping of land degradation as a direct result of gully-widening. This study reveals the utility of combining ASTER data and spatial textural information in discerning areas affected by gully erosion.