Landslide susceptibility mapping of a hilly region through a semi-quantitative technique

Characterization of landslide susceptibility carries great importance in hilly regions as it is one of the frequently occurring natural hazards which comes with huge destruction of life as well as property. Identification of such landslide susceptible zones is usually decided based on the necessity and available resources. It is considered a valuable input for planning developmental activities by policymakers. The current study focuses on Pabbar Catchment, located in the state of Himachal Pradesh in India and prepares a Landslide Susceptibility Map (LSM) at a catchment scale using Analytical Hierarchy Approach (AHP). Eleven geo-morphological attributes of the catchment called causative factors were used in thematic form while creating the LSM. Being a semi-quantitative method, AHP performed satisfactorily to produce a realistic distribution of landslide susceptibility with a prediction accuracy of 0.768 under the Area Under Curve (AUC) technique. Approximately 72% of the geographical area from the catchment falls under the 'high' landslide susceptible zone. Unavailability of LSM at this scale is addressed through this study that may be useful to regional planners for future land use planning.