Land Slide Susceptibility Analysis Using GIS, Remote Sensing, and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: A Case Study of Chitral District.

Abstract

Geological hazards posed by landslides, debris flows, rock avalanches, and mudflows have always been a major threat to communities worldwide, causing extensive damage and destruction of infrastructures and facilities. The upper Chitral region, located in the eastern Hindu Kush ranges, is particularly vulnerable to these hazards, necessitating a comprehensive assessment of landslide risks and their socio-economic and environmental impacts to support disaster risk reduction efforts. This study aims to assess the landslide hazard assessment utilizing the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) with Geographical Information System (GIS) to make a susceptibility map of the potential landslides in Chitral. Several landslide-causing factors (slope, aspect, curvature, land use, lithology, elevation, distance from faults, distance from streams, and precipitation data) were selected for the susceptibility assessment. Various thematic layers relative to these factors were combined and weights for each factor were assigned using the AHP technique to generate the landslide susceptibility map. The landslide susceptibility map was classified into five zones: very highly susceptible zones, highly susceptible zones, medium susceptible zones, low susceptible zones, and very low susceptible zones. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the model, the results were validated using NASA's landslide inventory data. This validation confirmed the robustness of the susceptibility map in accurately identifying areas at risk. The study findings indicate that certain regions within Chitral are highly susceptible to landslides due to steep slopes, fragile geological formations, and heavy rainfall. Mitigation measures such as early warning systems, retaining walls, land use planning, and regular mapping of vulnerable sites should be applied.