Landslide susceptibility mapping in vertical distribution law of precipitation area: Case of the Xulong hydropower station reservoir, Southwestern China

Abstract

This study focused on landslide susceptibility analysis mapping of the Xulong hydropower station reservoir, which is located in the upstream of Jinsha River, a rapidly uplifting region of the Tibetan Plateau region. Nine factors were employed as landslide conditioning factors in landslide susceptibility mapping. These factors included the slope angle, slope aspect, curvature, geology, distance-to-fault, distance-to-river, vegetation, bedrock uplift and annual precipitation. The rapid bedrock uplift factor was represented by the slope angle. The eight factors were processed with the information content model. Since this area has a significant vertical distribution law of precipitation, the annual precipitation factor was analyzed separately. The analytic hierarchy process weighting method was used to calculate the weights of nine factors. Thus, this study proposed a component approach to combine the normalized eight-factor results with the normalized annual precipitation distribution results. Subsequently, the results were plotted in geographic information system (GIS) and a landslide susceptibility map was produced. The evaluation accuracy analysis method was used as a validation approach. The landslide susceptibility classes were divided into four classes, including low, moderate, high and very high. The results show that the four susceptibility class ratios are 12.9%, 35.06%, 34.11%and 17.92% of the study area, respectively. The red belt in the high elevation area represents the very high susceptibility zones, which followed the vertical distribution law of precipitation. The prediction accuracy was 85.74%, which meant that the susceptibility map was confirmed to be reliable and reasonable. This susceptibility map may contribute to averting the landslide risk in the future construction of the Xulong hydropower station.