Detailed Mapping of Landslide Susceptibility for Urban Planning Purposes in Carpathian and Subcarpathian Towns of Romania

Abstract

The Carpathian and Subcarpathian towns in Romania developed under different geographical and historical conditions. Their built-up areas cover mainly slopes and sometimes terraces and higher floodplains. Some towns are old (mainly since the 14–16^th centuries) but there are also newer settlements (since the 19^th and even the last century). Mass movements and mainly landslides, are active morphodynamic features of the built-up areas. Since the liberalization of the immobiliary market they became important for the urban planning projects as well as for local people and the immobiliary sector. The paper we propose compares the cartographic results obtained within two case studies, featuring middle size and small towns, with two different geomorphic conditions: Predeal, a traditional mountain resort and Orsova, an entirely new rebuilt town, upstream from the Iron Gates Dam, on the Danube River in Banat Mountains. The maps were created using two different methods for landslide susceptibility assessment: probabilistic (Dempster-Shafer) and multidimensional analysis (Principal Components Analysis with logistic regression). For each town both methods were applied and the results were compared. In both cases the methods spatially delineated approximately the same areas as susceptible to landslides but with different susceptibility levels.