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Assessment of the influence of physical and seismotectonic parameters on landslide occurrence: an integrated geoinformatic approach

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Abstract

Landslide is a devastating natural hazard, which causes significant losses of human lives and properties. The landslide occurrences are the perennial problem in Himalayan region where it is controlled by several parameters such as physical (relief, slope, geomorphology and soil), lithology, tectonic and seismological activity. The main aim of the present research is the assessment of the physical and seismotectonic parameters influence on landslides occurrences and recurrence by analyzing various geospatial methods and integrating with different thematic databases in GIS platform. To achieve this goal, spatial as well as non-spatial data related to seismic parameters have been collected from existing sources and also incorporated with field observation data to develop a geospatial database. The GIS-based thematic databases such as relief, geology, geomorphology, soil, slope and seismotectonic have been generated with limited field observation data to compare with existing landslides. Also, landslide database has been prepared from high-resolution satellite image and classified as new landslide, reoccurrences of landslide in same region, reoccurrence of landslide in extended region, stabilized landslide and old landslide on the basis of its occurrences during 2013–2015. The various geospatial methods such as Thiessen polygon, buffer, interpolation, linear length density, and geostatistical method have been applied to understand the seismotectonic characteristics and its influence on landslide occurrences. Finally, all the spatial databases have been integrated in GIS for the assessment of physical and seismotectonic influence on landslide occurrences. The spatial distribution of landslide occurrences database shows that the landladies mainly occur along the road and river sides where the loose soil materials, soft sedimentary rock structures and tectonic influence are present. The quantitative result shows that the numbers of landslides have increased from 333 in 2013 to 360 in 2015, while the landslide area has also increased from 10.35 km2 in 2013 to 12.33 km2 in 2015. Also, analysis shows that the reoccurrence frequency of landslides and its covering area are greater than new landslide occurrence. The assessment result shows that the internal preconditioning factors such as relief, geology, and seismotectonic features are more responsible for new landslide occurrence, while landslide recurs due to inducing factors such as seismological activity and rainfall after an earthquake and also associated with preconditioning internal factors. The study will be helpful for landslide hazard zonation study in the future.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in USGS [https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/], NRSC [https://bhuvan-app3.nrsc.gov.in/data/download/index.php], SOI topographical map [https://soinakshe.uk.gov.in/], GSI [https://gsi.gov.in] and published seismic catalogue data.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to SRM Institute of Science and Technology for providing all necessary facilities and constant encouragement for doing this research work.

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  1. Earthquake Research Cell, College of Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Kanchipuram, Chennai, TN, 603 203, India

    R. Sivakumar & Snehasish Ghosh

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Kanchipuram, Chennai, TN, 603 203, India

    R. Sivakumar

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RS analyzed remote sensing data and designed the research paper; SG have collected the remote sensing as well as field observation data and developed geospatial databases.

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Sivakumar, R., Ghosh, S. Assessment of the influence of physical and seismotectonic parameters on landslide occurrence: an integrated geoinformatic approach. Nat Hazards 108, 2765–2811 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04800-y

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