Spatial Delineation of Zones Vulnerable to Landslides in the Upper Beas Basin
Main Article Content
Abstract
The Himalayas have long been prone to various disasters due to their active tectonic activity. Landslide is closely increasing in relation with changing physical as well as anthropogenic environment. In this series the Upper Beas Basin (UBB) is facing escalation in landslide incidents with changing man-nature action. The presented paper focuses at delineation of probable landslide zones using geoinformatics and statistical methods. Spatial landslide data and 12 factors were used, and with the help of geospatial and statistical methods, a weightage value for each factor was calculated. Then overlay analysis delineated the risky zones. Landslide prone areas were divided into five class, varying from very low to very high susceptibility. The Results were supported using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, ensuring model dependency and predictive accuracy. Mitigation strategies are propounded through land use planning, physical and policy interventions and it also includes community-based approaches. The research focuses on combining scientific analysis with collaborative planning to support disaster risk reduction in mountainous regions.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
Crozier MJ. Landslides: Causes, consequences and environment. London: Croom Helm Ltd; 1986.
Shano L, Raghuvanshi TK, Meten M. Landslide susceptibility mapping using frequency ratio model: A case of Gamo Highland, South Ethiopia. Arab J Geosci. 2021;14(7):1–18.
doi: 10.1007/s12517-021-06995-7
Haque U, da Silva PF, Devoli G, et al. The human cost of global warming: Deadly landslides and their triggers (1995–2014). Sci Total Environ. 2019;682:673–84.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.415
Highland LM, Bobrowsky P. The landslide handbook: A guide to understanding landslides. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1325. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey; 2008.
Yang W, Shen L, Shi P. Mapping landslide risk of the world. In: World atlas of natural disaster risk. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg; 2015. p. 57–66.
Sur U, Singh P, Meena SR. Landslide susceptibility assessment in a lesser Himalayan road corridor using fuzzy AHP and earth observation data. Geomat Nat Hazards Risk. 2020;11(1):2176–209.
doi: 10.1080/19475705.2020.1836038
Kumar A, Asthana A, Priyanka RS, et al. Assessment of landslide hazards induced by an extreme rainfall event in Jammu and Kashmir Himalaya, northwest India. Geomorphology. 2017;284:72–87.
doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.01.003
8. Saha S, Bera B, Bhattacharjee S, et al. Identification of multiple causes of recent landslides triggered by extreme rainfall and GLOF in the Sikkim Himalaya during October 2023. Landslides. 2024;21(12):2993–3009.
doi: 10.1007/s10346-024-02370-1
9. Sah MP, Mazari RK. Anthropogenically accelerated mass movement, Kulu Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. Geomorphology. 1998;26(1–3):123–38.
10. Dikshit A, Sarkar R, Pradhan B, Segoni S, Alamri AM. Rainfall-induced landslide studies in the Indian Himalayan region: A critical review. Appl Sci. 2020;10(7):2466.
doi: 10.3390/app10072466
11. Martha TR, Roy P, Jain N, et al. Geospatial landslide inventory of India: An insight into occurrence and exposure on a national scale. Landslides. 2021;18(6):2125–41.
12. Chand I, Gupta C. Community-Based Landslide Risk Reduction in Himachal Pradesh, India.
13. Pebam L, Gautam A, Devi AA, Kaur M. Impact of natural disaster on the tourism possibilities: Case study of Himachal Pradesh. International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology. 2024 Mar;9(3):1243-8.
doi: 10.38124/ijisrt/IJISRT24MAR1144
14. Prasad AS, Pandey BW, Leimgruber W, Kunwar RM. Mountain hazard susceptibility and livelihood security in the upper catchment area of the river Beas, Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. Geoenvironmental Disasters. 2016 Feb 29;3(1):3.
15. Singh M, Khajuria V, Singh S, Singh K. Landslide susceptibility evaluation in the Beas River Basin of north-western Himalaya using AHP. Quat Sci Adv. 2024;14:100180.
doi: 10.1016/j.qsa.2024.100180
16. Lennartz T. Constructing roads—constructing risks? Settlement decisions in view of landslide risk and economic opportunities in western Nepal. Mt Res Dev. 2013;33(4):364–71.
doi: 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-13-00048.1
17. Rani S. Climate, land-use change and hydrology of the Beas River Basin, Western Himalayas. Cham: Springer; 2023.
doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-29525-6
18. Aggarwal SP, Thakur PK, Garg V, et al. Water resources status and availability assessment in current and future climate change scenarios for Beas River Basin of north western Himalaya. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spatial Inf Sci. 2016;XLI-B8:1389–96.
doi: 10.5194/isprs-archives-xli-b8-1389-2016
19. Vashistha A, Joshi S, Siva Subramanian S. Scenario-based probabilistic risk assessment of earthquake-induced landslides in Uttarakhand, India. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess. 2025;39(11):5049–69.
doi: 10.1007/s00477-025-03067-0
20. Pandey VK, Rai J, Sharma KK, Singh R. Analysis of flood and channel dynamics adversity in the Upper Beas Basin during 9–11 July 2023, Himachal Pradesh. Nat Hazards Res. 2025.
doi: 10.1016/j.nhres.2025.09.001
21. Rani S. Description of the Beas River Basin. In: Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. Cham: Springer; 2023. p. 63–99.
doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-29525-6_2
22. Vakhshoori V, Zare M. Is the ROC curve a reliable tool to compare the validity of landslide susceptibility maps? Geomat Nat Hazards Risk. 2018;9(1):249–66.
doi: 10.1080/19475705.2018.1424043
23. Raja NB, Çiçek I, Türkoğlu N, Aydin O, Kawasaki A. Landslide susceptibility mapping of the Sera River Basin using logistic regression model. Nat Hazards. 2016;85(3):1323–46.
doi: 10.1007/s11069-016-2591-7
24. Roy J, Saha S. Landslide susceptibility mapping using knowledge-driven statistical models in Darjeeling District, West Bengal, India. Geoenviron Disasters. 2019;6(1):11.
doi: 10.1186/s40677-019-0126-8
25. Torizin J, Schüßler N, Fuchs M. Landslide susceptibility assessment tools v1.0.0b: A modular toolkit. Geosci Model Dev. 2022;15(7):2791–812.
doi: 10.5194/gmd-15-2791-2022