GIS-based spatial landslide distribution analysis of district Neelum, AJ&K, Pakistan

Abstract

The Landslide happens in mountainous regions due to the catastrophe of slope through intensive rain and seismicity. The Himalayas is one of the susceptible parts of the world in the perspective of slope catastrophe hazard; i.e., Mass Movement, especially Neelum valley is considerable destruction of community infrastructure, highway, and critically disturbed the tourism segment. Landslide is a common and recurrent phenomenon in the northern mountainous terrain of Pakistan such as District Neelum. After the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the importance of landslide investigation is increasing. The purpose of this research is to establish a brief landslide inventory and to determine the relationship of landslides with causative factors by spatial distribution analysis. With the aid of Google Earth imageries and field visits, a total of 618 landslides were identified in the study area of 3621 km. These landslide localities compared with causative factors. Finally, distribution maps are generated and analyse their feature class through Digital Elevation Model and ArcGIS. Landslide intensity is calculated in terms of landslide concentration. Landslide concentration (LC) is significantly found very high in slope gradient less than 30 (1.21) and the first 100 m zone around the road network (15.06). A bit higher landslide frequency is noted in east orienting slopes. In the first 100 m, zone road network and drainage networks are 83.49% and 62.78% of the total landslide occurs having LC value 4.6, respectively. The analysis shows that the steep slopes, an area closer to the road network, drainage network, barren lands, and Quaternary alluvium of loose material are more susceptible to landslides. In addition, a landslide classification map is also prepared on the basis of field observation that shows that debris slides are more dominating.