Landslide susceptibility assessment of the high range areas in Thiruvananthapuram district (Southwest India) using the MCDA-AHP model and geospatial techniques

Abstract

Landslides are one of the most frequent hazards occurring in the mountainous terrain of the Western Ghats. The purpose of this study is to use the analytical hierarchy process approach to identify landslide-susceptible zones in the Western Ghats region of Thiruvananthapuram district. A total of 11 conditioning factors were evaluated in the susceptibility modelling. A landslide susceptibility map was created using satellite data and geographic information systems (GIS), and the study area was segmented into five susceptible zones using the natural breaks method. The AHP method of landslide susceptibility modelling identified 14.76% of the area as a very high-susceptible zone. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) technique was used to validate the created landslide susceptibility map. The landslide susceptibility map produced using the AHP model is confirmed as having excellent and outstanding prediction capability for the training and validation datasets, based on the area under the ROC curve (AUC) value. When it comes to implementing landslide mitigation techniques, decision-makers and land-use planners will find the map quite valuable.