Landslide Susceptibility Mapping

Landslide Susceptibility Mapping

News: Recently, IIT Delhi’s HydroSense Lab has created India’s first high-resolution landslide susceptibility map.

What is Landslide Susceptibility mapping?
• Landslide Susceptibility Mapping (LSM) is a method used to predict the spatial distribution of landslide susceptibility in a region by
combining regional topography, geological structures, hydrometeorology, and other characteristics.
• It involves creating maps that depict areas prone to landslides based on certain factors. For example, using data on past landslide events and factors like slope steepness, soil type, and vegetation cover, a computer model can analyze these variables to predict areas at high risk.

What are the features of National Landslide Susceptibility Map?
• The map incorporates 1.5 lakh known landslide events from sources like the Geological Survey of India (GSI). It also considers 16 landslide conditioning factors, including soil cover, tree density, proximity to roads or mountains, etc.
• Ensemble machine learning methods were employed to analyse the data. This involves using multiple machine learning models together to mitigate the impact of any single model’s limitations. Examples include the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Logistic Regression (LR), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) methods.
• It provides a high-resolution overview with a detailed resolution
• Familiar areas with high susceptibility, such as the Himalayan foothills, Assam-Meghalaya region, and Western Ghats, were identified. New risk zones, previously unrecognized, were also revealed, including parts of the Eastern Ghats north of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
• Public can also access the map online.