Integrating the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the frequency ratio (FR) model in landslide susceptibility mapping of Shiv-khola watershed, Darjeeling Himalaya

Abstract

To prepare a landslide susceptibility map of Shiv-khola watershed, one of the landslide prone parts of Darjeeling Himalaya, remote sensing and GIS tools were used to integrate 10 landslide triggering parameters: lithology, slope angle, slope aspect, slope curvature, drainage density, upslope contributing area (UCA), lineament, settlement density, road contributing area (RCA), and land use and land cover (LULC). The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to derive factor weights using MATLAB with reasonable consistency ratio (CR). The frequency ratio (FR) model was used to derive class frequency ratio or class weights that indicate the relative importance of individual classes for each factor. The weighted linear combination (WLC) method was used to determine the landslide susceptibility index value (LSIV) on a GIS platform, by incorporating both factor weights and class weights. The Shiv-khola watershed is classified into five landslide susceptibility zones. The overall classification accuracy is 99.22 and Kappa Statistics is 0.894.