Modelling of debris-flow susceptibility and propagation: a case study from Northwest Himalaya

The geological and geographical position of the Northwest Himalayas makes it a vulnerable area for mass movements particularly landslides and debris flows. Mass movements have had a substantial impact on the study area which is extending along Karakorum Highway(KKH) from Besham to Chilas. Intense seismicity, deep gorges, steep terrain and extreme climatic events trigger multiple mountain hazards along the KKH, among which debris flow is recognized as the most destructive geohazard. This study aims to prepare a field-based debris flow inventory map at a regional scale along a 200 km stretch from Besham to Chilas. A total of 117 debris flows were identified in the field, and subsequently, a point-based debris-flow inventory and catchment delineation were performed through Arc GIS analysis. Regional scale debris flow susceptibility and propagation maps were prepared using Weighted Overlay Method(WOM) and Flow-R technique sequentially. Predisposing factors include slope, slope aspect, elevation, Topographic Roughness Index(TRI), Topographic Wetness Index(TWI), stream buffer, distance to faults, lithology rainfall, curvature, and collapsed material layer. The dataset was randomly divided into training data(75%) and validation data(25%). Results were validated through the Receiver Operator Characteristics(ROC) curve. Results show that Area Under the Curve(AUC) using WOM model is 79.2%. Flow-R propagation of debris flow shows that the 13.15%, 22.94%, and 63.91% areas are very high, high, and low susceptible to debris flow respectively. The propagation predicated by Flow-R validates the naturally occurring debris flow propagation as observed in the field surveys. The output of this research will provide valuable input to the decision makers for the site selection, designing of the prevention system, and for the protection of current infrastructure.

An approach to delineate groundwater recharge potential sites in Ambalantota,Sri Lanka using GIS techniques

The demand for fresh water in Hambantota District, Sri Lanka is rapidly increasing with the enormous amount of ongoing development projects in the region. Nevertheless, the district experiences periodic water stress conditions due to seasonal precipitation patterns and scarcity of surface water resources.Therefore, management of available groundwater resources is critical, to fulfil potable water requirements in the area. However, exploitation of groundwater should be carried out together with artificial recharging in order to maintain the long term sustainability of water resources. In this study, a GIS approach was used to delineate potential artificial recharge sites in Ambalantota area within Hambantota. Influential thematic layers such as rainfall, lineament, slope, drainage, land use/land cover, lithology, geomorphology and soil characteristics were integrated by using a weighted linear combination method. Results of the study reveal high to moderate groundwater recharge potential in approximately 49% of Ambalantota area.

Suitability evaluation and spatial capacity analysis for complex topography construction land area in southwest China:a case study of Tongzi county in Guizhou province

In the background of a new round reform and western development strategy, making suitability evaluation of construction land complex topography area in southwest China scientifically and accurately has an important guiding significance on the construction of local urban and rural development. We selected economic factor of construction, safety factor of construction, factor of the present situation of land use and ecological protection factor in Tongzi county as evaluation indexes, and ascertained the weight of each elastic indicator using the analytic hierarchy process method. By the support of GIS and RS technology, we combined the single-factor qualitative classification with the multi-factor weighted overlay analysis to make comprehensive suitability evaluation of construction land on the whole study area. And five different types of construction land were divided, namely, ‘excellent', ‘very good', ‘good', ‘moderate' and ‘poor'. The result shows that the area of ‘excellent' construction land is 30.47 km^2(0.95%), 101.46 km^2(3.16%) of ‘very good', 550.34 km^2(17.16%) of ‘good', and 664.69 km^2(20.72%) and 1 860.65 km^2(58.01%) of ‘moderate' and ‘poor', respectively. The land space bearing capacity is a population of 791 600, and the remaining population capacity is 170 900 persons.

Assessing and Mapping Land Suitability Units for Maize (Zea mays L) Production Using Integrated DEMATEL-ANP Model and GIS in the Foumbot Agricultural Basin (Cameroon Western Highlands)

Land suitability assessment (LSA) is an essential step in the process of determining environmental limits for sustainable crop production. Up to date, studies on LSA for crop production in Cameroon have been based on empirical methods which are limited as they consider similar singnificance levels for all evaluation criteria and do not consider the interrelationships of criteria in the best-fit models. In the present study a qualitative land suitability evaluation by an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach and geographic information system (GIS) was tested to assess and map suitable land units for maize (Zea mays L) production in Cameroon Western highland. Eight environmental criteria identified as the most relevant for maize production in the area of interest (AOI) saw their thematic maps prepared using ArcGIS 10.8. The relationship between criteria was considered by the DEMATEL method. The criteria were weighted using the ANP method. Thereafter, the land suitability map was obtained using the weighted overlay analysis (WOA) in ArcGIS. The results obtained indicated that slope has the highest specific weight and consequently the greatest influence on land suitability for maize production in the locality. The land suitability map generated showed that Foumbot’s agricultural land suitability for maize production varies from very high to marginally suitable (99% of the surface area). Specifically, 11% (8056 ha) is very highly suitable, 29% (21,119 ha) is highly suitable, 38% (27,405 ha) are moderately suitable and 20% (14,422 ha) are marginally suitable. The remaining 1% that falls under non suitable class represents 606 ha and is located on the steep slopes around the Mount Mbappit. The kappa analysis reveals a total overall accuracy of 78.67% and a kappa value of 0.7256 with an asymptotic error of 0.058 which is good. Then the model used in this research is highly recommended for future land evaluation works in Cameroon and similar ecosystems around the world.

Groundwater recharge site suitability analysis through multiinfluencing factors(MIF)in West Bengal dry-land areas,West Bengal,India

Groundwater levels are gradually declining in basins around the world due to anthropogenic and natural factors.Climate is not the only factor contributing to change in groundwater levels,population growth and economic progress are leading to increased water demand.Areas used for agricultural irrigation are expanding,necessitating the use of artificial groundwater recharge as a method to sustain pumping and enhance storage.The present study delineates potential locations of significant groundwater resources that already exist using a geostatistical approach as a method to identify potential groundwater recharge zones.The Multi-Influencing Factors(MIF)technique was applied to determine the relationship between different landscape and climatic factors that influence groundwater recharge.Factors include topography,climate,hydrogeology,population,economic change,and geology.Integration of these factors enabled the identification of potential locations of groundwater suitable for artificial recharge efforts based on weights derived through the MIF technique.We applied these weights to derive a groundwater recharge index(GRI)map.The map was delineated into three groundwater recharge zones classified by their potential areal coverage as a metric for recharge suitability,namely low,medium and high suitability,occupying areas of 8625 km2(30.06%),9082 km2(31.65%),and 10,989 km~2(38.29%),respectively.Our findings have important implications for designing sustainable groundwater development and land-use plans for the coming century.

Intelligent Identification of Building Patches and Assessment of Roof Greening Suitability in High-density Urban Areas:A Case Study of Chengdu

With the expansion of a city,the urban green space is occupied and the urban heat island effect is serious.Greening the roof surfaces of urban buildings is an effective way to increase the area of urban green space and improve the urban ecological environment.To provide effective data support for urban green space planning,this paper used high-resolution images to(1)obtain accurate building spots on the map of the study area through deep learning assisted manual correction;and(2)establish an evaluation index system of roof greening including the characteristics of the roof itself,the natural environment and the human society environment.The weight values of attributes not related to the roof itself were calculated by Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP).The suitable green roof locations were evaluated by spatial join,weighted superposition and other spatial analysis methods.Taking the areas within the Chengdu city’s third ring road as the study area,the results show that an accurate building pattern obtained by deep learning greatly improves the efficiency of the experiment.The roof surfaces unsuitable for greening can be effectively classified by the method of feature extraction,with an accuracy of 86.58%.The roofs suitable for greening account for 48.08%,among which,the high-suitability roofs,medium-suitability roofs and low-suitability roofs represent 45.32%,38.95%and 15.73%.The high-suitability green buildings are mainly distributed in the first ring district and the western area outside the first ring district in Chengdu.This paper is useful for solving the current problem of the more saturated high-density urban area and allowing the expansion of the urban ecological environment.