SBAS-InSAR-Based Landslide Susceptibility Mapping Along the North Lancang River, Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Landslides pose huge challenges to the economic activities in mountainous areas at present, while large numbers of landslide disasters have developed in the Hengduan Mountains area in the eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. Accurate landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) serves as a critical measure to predict the serious risks that may be encountered in engineering activities. However, previous landslide susceptibility assessment can only play a limited role in the real-time analysis of current activities of slopes. In this study, the deformation rates of the slopes along the Lancang River were determined using the SBAS-InSAR technique. Meanwhile, the landslide susceptibility along the north Lancang River was assessed using the frequency ratio (FR), random forest and FR-RF models, and the precision of the assessment results was verified according to receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs). Finally, a refined landslide susceptibility map was developed by integrating the deformation rates and landslide susceptibility indexes (LSIs) using a contingency matrix. As indicated by the deformation rates calculated using the SBAS-InSAR technique according to ascending and descending data show that the RADARSAT-2 descending data yielded more precise deformation results. The area-under-the-curve (AUC) values of the three assessment models were 0.866, 0.897, and 0.916, respectively, indicating that the assessment results obtained with the FR-RF model are the most precise. In the upgraded landslide susceptibility map, the areas with high and very high landslide susceptibility increased by 2.97%. Meanwhile, a total of 563,430 grid cells showed an increase in landslide susceptibility, accounting for 11.15% of all the grid cells. Most especially, the Xueru and Ritong areas exhibited a significant increase in landslide susceptibility, and it has been verified by remote sensing images and field surveys that both areas are subject to landslide risks. Therefore, the upgraded landslide susceptibility map has a better prediction performance and can provide valuable support for the decision making in the construction of major engineering facilities and the prevention and remediation of landslides.