Hazard risk assessment of landslide-prone sub-Himalayan region by employing geospatial modeling approach

Javeria Saleem, Sheikh Saeed Ahmad () and Amna Butt
Additional contact information
Javeria Saleem: Fatima Jinnah Women University
Sheikh Saeed Ahmad: Fatima Jinnah Women University
Amna Butt: Fatima Jinnah Women University

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2020, vol. 102, issue 3, No 37, 1497-1514

Abstract: Abstract Ecological processes such as landslide disaster are primarily impacted by both geological and land use activities happening at different spatiotemporal scale. They specifically impact the socioeconomic development in the sub-Himalayan region of Pakistan. Ecological risk assessment and restrictive zonation mapping are therefore prerequisites for mitigation and compensation of landslide losses and risks. The current study has mapped landslide vulnerable Guoien Nullah road located in sub-Himalaya ranges of Pakistan via Landslide Hazard Zonation (LHZ) technique. Landslide active points were identified through field surveys, verified through the readings taken from Global Positioning System and mapped through geographic information system-based software. Seven landslide activating factors, i.e., slope angle, lithology, precipitation, tilt direction, land use/land cover, Normalized Differentiation Vegetation Index and elevation, were evaluated. Analytical hierarchical process (AHP) was used to assign weights to each activating factor. Precipitation, followed by lithology, and slope angle were found most influential in instigating landslide as indicated by AHP. Furthermore, three susceptibility zones were obtained using the weighted overlay method, i.e., high hazard susceptibility zone, moderate hazard susceptibility zone and low hazard susceptibility zone. The study concluded that 69% of the total landslide occurred in the high susceptibility zone which comprised of 36% of the total study area. Ground control points on active landslide sites authenticated the LHZ generated map. These maps help in restrictive zoning in the high hazard zone area that is considered important for engineers, geologists, and land use planners for future area-specific developmental projects. Besides, the current study will aid disaster management authorities, developers, policy makers and researchers in identifying the hazard disposal of the selected area.

Keywords: Ecological risk assessment; LHZ; AHP; WOM; Susceptibility zones (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-020-03980-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:102:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11069-020-03980-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-020-03980-3

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().