A hybrid spatial multi-criteria evaluation method for mapping landslide susceptible areas in Kullu valley, Himalayas

In this paper we report our results from analysing a hybrid spatial multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) method for generating landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM). This study is the first of its kind in the Kullu valley, Himalayas. We used eight related geospatial conditioning factors from three main groups: geological, morphological and topographical factors. Our landslide inventory dataset has a total of 149 GPS points of landslide locations, collected based on a field survey in July 2018. The relationships between landslide locations and conditioning factors were determined using the GIS-based statistical methods of frequency ratio (FR), multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) and the integration method of hybrid SMCE. We compared the performance of applied methods by dividing the inventory into testing (70%) and validation (30%) datasets. The area under the curve (AUC) was used to validate the results. The integration method of hybrid SMCE gave the highest accuracy rate (0.910) compared to the other two methods, with 0.797 and 0.907 accuracy rates for the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and FR, respectively. The applied methodologies are easily transferable to other areas, and the resulting landslide susceptibility maps (LSMs) can be useful for risk mitigation and development planning purposes in the Kullu valley, Himalayas.