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Estimating potential landslide sites of an upland sub-watershed in Western Ghat’s of Kerala (India) through frequency ratio and GIS

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the susceptibility of landslides in parts of Western Ghats, Kerala, India, using a geographical information system (GIS). Landslide inventory of the area was made by detailed field surveys and the analysis of the topographical maps. The landslide triggering factors are considered to be slope angle, slope aspect, slope curvature, slope length, distance from drainage, distance from lineaments, lithology, land use and geomorphology. ArcGIS version 8.3 was used to manipulate and analyse all the collected data. Probabilistic-likelihood ratio was used to create a landslide susceptibility map for the study area. The result was validated using the Area under Curve (AUC) method and temporal data of landslide occurrences. The validation results showed satisfactory agreement between the susceptibility map and the existing data on landslide locations. As the result, the success rate of the model was (84.46%) and the prediction rate of the model was (82.38%) shows high prediction accuracy. In the reclassified final landslide susceptibility zone map, 5.68% of the total area is classified as critical in nature. The landslide susceptibility map thus produced can be used to reduce hazards associated with landslides and to land cover planning.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and contributions, which helped to improve the earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centralized RS and GIS Facility, School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, 686 560, India

    H. Vijith

  2. School of Engineering, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, Kerala, 687 022, India

    G. Madhu

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  1. H. Vijith
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  2. G. Madhu
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Correspondence to H. Vijith.

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Vijith, H., Madhu, G. Estimating potential landslide sites of an upland sub-watershed in Western Ghat’s of Kerala (India) through frequency ratio and GIS. Environ Geol 55, 1397–1405 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-1090-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-1090-2

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