Landslide Hazards Zonation is one of the key tools for geologists, civil engineers, land-use planners and geographers for prevention and mitigation strategies for landslide. Primary step of present study is to prepare input raster layers of various factors that control landslides. Slope, geological formations, rainfall, land use, lineament density, drainage density and road density are seven controlling factors that are selected for this purpose. The weighted Overlay Method is extensively applied in the present study for assigning weights and ranks to various factors using Analytic Hierarchy Process. Using multi-criteria analysis which is based on ranks and weight, Landslide Susceptibility Index is calculated. Finally, Landslide susceptibility map of study area is developed. Based on the susceptibility Index, study area is divided into five susceptibility zones from very high to very low. The classification is as very high (5%), high (26%), moderate (40%), low (28%) and very low zones (1%). This susceptibility zonation map is very helpful for an exhaustive study of the area concerning landslide prevention and its mitigation on one hand, as well as, proper land-use planning for tourism and societal development of Dharamshala city and its surrounding areas on the other hand.
Dhiman et al. (Thu,) studied this question.