Abstract
Abstract. Identification of high potential risk and susceptible zones for natural hazards of geological origin is one of the most important applications of advanced remote sensing technology. Yearly, several landslides occur during heavy monsoon rainfall in Kelantan River basin, Peninsular Malaysia. Flooding and subsequent landslide occurrences generated significant damage to livestock, agricultural produce, homes and businesses in the Kelantan River basin. In this study, remote sensing data from the recently launched Landsat-8 and Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2 (PALSAR-2) on board the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) were used to map geologic structural and topographical features in the Kelantan River basin for identification of high potential risk and susceptible zones for landslides and flooding areas. The data were processed for a comprehensive analysis of major geological structures and detailed characterizations of lineaments, drainage patterns and lithology at both regional and district scales. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach was used for landslide susceptibility mapping. Several factors such as slope, aspect, soil, lithology, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), land cover, distance to drainage, precipitation, distance to fault and distance to the road were extracted from remote sensing satellite data and fieldwork to apply the AHP approach. Directional convolution filters were applied to ALOS-2 data for identifying linear features in particular directions and edge enhancement in the spatial domain. Results indicate that lineament occurrence at regional scale was mainly linked to the N–S trending of the Bentong–Raub Suture Zone (BRSZ) in the west and Lebir Fault Zone in the east of the Kelantan state. The combination of different polarization channels produced image maps that contain important information related to water bodies, wetlands and lithological units. The N–S, NE–SW and NNE–SSW lineament trends and dendritic, sub-dendritic and rectangular drainage patterns were detected in the Kelantan River basin. The analysis of field investigation data indicates that many of flooded areas were associated with high potential risk zones for hydrogeological hazards such as wetlands, urban areas, floodplain scroll, meander bend, dendritic and sub-dendritic drainage patterns, which are located in flat topographic regions. Numerous landslide points were located in a rectangular drainage system that is associated with a topographic slope of metamorphic and quaternary rock units. Consequently, structural and topographical geology maps were produced for Kelantan River basin using PALSAR-2 data, which could be broadly applicable for landslide hazard mapping and identification of high potential risk zone for hydrogeological hazards. Geohazard mitigation programs could be conducted in the landslide recurrence regions and flooded areas to reduce natural catastrophes leading to loss of life and financial investments in the Kelantan River basin. In this investigation, Landsat-8 and ALOS-2 have proven to successfully provide advanced Earth observation satellite data for disaster monitoring in tropical environments.
Highlights
The state of Kelantan is located in the northeastern corner of Peninsular Malaysia (Fig. 1)
The Main Range granite located in the western part of the image and the Boundary Range granite on the eastern borders of Kelantan state appear as light green to green in color, which shows the regions with high altitude in the scene (Fig. 4)
Results of this investigation indicate that Landsat-8 and Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) have proven to provide successful advanced remote sensing satellite data for disaster monitoring in tropical environments
Summary
The state of Kelantan is located in the northeastern corner of Peninsular Malaysia (Fig. 1). The advanced SAR remote sensing data are broadly applicable for geoenvironmental research to identify the causes of natural disasters and point the way to rehabilitation measures, especially in tropical environments In this investigation, multitemporal Landsat-8, the PALSAR-2 data and GIS techniques were integrated to detect and map landslide occurrence zones in the Kelantan state following massive rainfall in December 2014. The specific objectives that drive this investigation are (i) to identify high potential risk and susceptible zones for geological origin hazards using the recently launched ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 remote sensing data in the Kelantan River basin at regional and district scales; (ii) to produce accurate geological structure and topographical maps for the Kelantan River basin using Landsat-8 and PALSAR-2 data; and (iii) to compare the detected high potential risk and susceptible zones with highly damaged areas from recent flooding events in the Kelantan River basin.
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