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Landslide Susceptibility Mapping Based on the Combination of Bivariate
Statistics and Modified Analytic Hierarchy Process Methods: A Case Study
of Tinh Tuc Town, Nguyen Binh District, Cao Bang Province, Vietnam
Paper:
Tinh Tuc town, Cao Bang province, Vietnam is prone way 34, the main road connecting Ha Giang and Cao
to landslides due to the complexity of its climatic, ge- Bang. The combination of steep terrain, high construction
ological, and geomorphological conditions. In this density, and annual heavy precipitation might be the main
study, in order to produce a landslide susceptibility reason for the high potential of landslide occurrence. In
map, the modified analytical hierarchy process and 2020, for example, due to the influence of rainstorms, sev-
landslide susceptibility analysis methods were used eral major landslides were recorded at the Tinh Tuc town’s
together with the layers, including: landslide inven- hospital. These landslides destroyed Highway 34 and the
tory, slope, weathering crust, water storage, geology, surrounding residential areas, and threatened the safety of
land use, and distance from the road. In the study the town’s hospital located at the foot of the landslide.
area, 98% of landslides occurred in highly or com- Due to climate change, rain and floods occur abnormally;
pletely weathered units. Geology, land use, and wa- thus, landslides tend to be a potential hazard. However,
ter storage data layers were found to be important no research project has focused on assessing the landslide
factors that are closely related with the occurrence of susceptibility of this town.
landslides. Although the weight of the “distance from Landslide susceptibility is defined as the degree to
the road” factor has a low value, the weight of layer which terrain is likely to create slope failures. This sus-
“<< 1 0 0 m” has a high value. Therefore, the landslide ceptibility is often shown on a map. A landslide sus-
susceptibility index very high is concentrated along the ceptibility map depicts areas where future landslides are
roads. For the validation of the predicted result, the likely to occur by correlating some of the major factors
landslide susceptibility map was compared with the that cause landslides with the distribution of past slope
landslide inventory map containing 47 landslides. The failures [1]. These maps serve as effective tools for con-
outcome shows that about 90% of these landslides fall struction planning, preventing landslides, and minimizing
into very high susceptibility zones. damage [2]. The increasing trend in landslide occurrence
in mountainous areas all over the world in recent decades
caused by climate change has alerted researchers to seek
Keywords: landslide susceptibility map, bivariate statis- more reliable methods for landslide prediction as well as
tics, landslide susceptibility analysis (LSA), modified an- the construction of the warning systems [3].
alytic hierarchy process, Tinh Tuc town Landslide susceptibility mapping is based on a com-
plex knowledge of slope shifts and the factors that control
them [4]. The reliability of the landslide susceptibility
1. Introduction maps depends on both the quantity and quality of avail-
able data, the scale of work, and the selection of appro-
Tinh Tuc town is located in Non Nuoc Cao Bang Global priate modeling and analysis methods [5]. The process of
Geopark, Nguyen Binh district, Cao Bang province, creating these maps involves several qualitative and quan-
Northeast Vietnam. This area has a mixture of karst land- titative approaches.
scape with erosion – denudation landscape of mountains The qualitative method depends on expert knowledge.
and soil formed on the continental sedimentary rocks of The most common type of qualitative methods is sim-
the Song Hien formation and granite intrusive rocks of ply using landslide inventories to identify sites with sim-
the Phia Oac complex. Tinh Tuc town is built along High- ilar geological and geomorphological properties that are
(a) (b)
Fig. 1. (a) Study area location and (b) landslide inventory map of Tinh Tuc town, Cao Bang.
susceptible to failure. Additionally, to increase objectiv- velop landslide susceptibility maps for Tinh Tuc town,
ity, some qualitative methods have been modified to be- Cao Bang province. To do this, six factors, including
come semi-quantitative with the introduction of weights slope, weathering crust, water storage, geology, land use,
and ranks [6]. An example of this practice is the use of and distance from the road, were considered. The pre-
the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) by Saaty [7] and the dicted landslide susceptibility map was then compared
weighted linear combination (WLC) by Ayalew et al. [6]. with the actual landslide inventory map for validation.
The results of these approaches are partially subjective
and vary depending on expert opinions, causing the loss
of objectivity in the assessment. The modified AHP (M- 2. General State of the Region
AHP) method overcame this weakness when it removed
the subjectivity from the expert opinions in scoring fac- Figure 1 shows the location of the study area. Tinh
tors. Therefore, M-AHP can be considered an objective Tuc town is in Nguyen Binh district, Cao Bang province
and quantitative assessment. in the north of Vietnam, about 300 km from the capital
The quantitative methods are based on the numerical Hanoi. The study area includes the whole of Tinh Tuc
expressions of the relationship between the control fac- town and surrounding areas. The altitude in the study area
tors and landslides. There are two types of quantitative ranges from 434 m to 1876 m. The population is mainly
methods: deterministic and statistical [8]. The determi- distributed along Highway 34 running through the town,
nation method is able to describe the actual physical trig- where the terrain is relatively flat.
gering process of a landslide [9, 10]. The stability of the The field survey results from Project NDT 67/e-Asia19
slope is expressed as the factor of safety, which is the ra- show that the study area includes 47 landslides (Fig. 1).
tio between the resisting forces to the gravitationally in- The landslide with the smallest area is about 60 m2 (land-
duced downslope driving stress [11–13]. Statistical meth- slide numbers 22 and 29), the largest is 50,000 m2 (land-
ods analyze the correlation between the control factors of slide number 14). Fig. 2 shows several photos of land-
landslides and the distribution of landslides in the past. slides along the national road Highway 34.
Quantitative approaches can be used to reduce personal
bias during the weight assessment process. Consequently,
more realistic susceptibility maps can be generated from 3. Materials and Methods
an objective measurement of value. Numerous methods
of quantitative assessment have been applied effectively, M-AHP is built on the foundation of the AHP. Many
such as bivariate statistics, multivariate statistics, logistic researchers have used the AHP model in various appli-
regression, fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, and so cations and reported reasonable accuracy. However, it
on. is based on expert opinions and, thus, may be subject to
This study aimed to combine, for the first time, the cognitive limitations with uncertainty and subjectivity [4].
modified AHP and bivariate statistical methods to de- Therefore, for solving the limitations of the conventional
method to evaluate landslides. As mentioned by Soeters and van Westen [21], it may
To evaluate the influence of each variable, weight- not be necessary to include all parameters, because it de-
ing factors are determined, which compare the calculated pends on which ones are relevant for the study area. It also
density with the overall density in the area [18]. The fol- provides optimum results to evaluate landslide hazards by
lowing formula is used for the calculation: using few parameters.
∗ Six relevant factors are selected as the input for the
Ai j A∗
Wi j = 1000( fi j − f ) = 1000 − , . . (2) models of landslide susceptibility mapping in the study
Ai j A area, namely slope, weathering crust, water storage, land
where Wi j = weight given to a certain class i of param- use, geology, and distance from the road.
eter j; fi j = landslide density within the class i of pa- Table 1 shows the weights of each class according to
rameter j; f = landslide density within the entire map; the LSA method. From these weights, we can calculate
A∗i j = area of landslides in certain class i of parame- the weights of the classes using the M-AHP method (Ta-
ter j; Ai j = area of certain class i of parameter j; A∗ = ble 2).
total area of the landslide on the entire map; A = total The weight calculation is based on the standard devia-
area of the entire map. tion identified in Table 2.
Data maps were prepared based on the causes and in- Factor maps were constructed from a variety of sources.
fluencing factors of landslides. The causes of landslides The slope map (Fig. 4) was constructed from a topo-
can be summarized into three main groups [19]: graphic map scale 1 : 10, 000, resulting from Project NDT
67/e-Asia19. Other maps (Figs. 5–8) have been derived
1) Changing the shape and height of the slope. This from the studies of the Institute of Geology (Thanh) [22].
group includes the undercutting of the slope, caused The distance from road map (Fig. 9) was constructed us-
by both anthropogenic and natural activities due to the ing a buffer tool in the ArcGIS software.
undermining of the slope by constant water flows or
abrasion of the slope.
4. Results
2) Changes in the structure, condition, and properties of
the soil and rocks that make up the slope. This group Overlapping the above six map layers according to
combines processes that change the soil and rocks and Eq. (1) creates a map of landslide susceptibility in the
their physical and mechanical properties. This is phys- Tinh Tuc area (Fig. 10).
ical and chemical weathering and the moistening of Figures 10 and 11 show five areas with different de-
soil and rocks by atmospheric and underground wa- grees of landslide susceptibility:
ters.
• Area 1: LSI = −2.96÷(−1.72). This area has a very
3) Additional load on the slope. These are various ad- low degree of landslide susceptibility.
ditional loads, such as seismic, hydrodynamic, hydro-
static, artificial static, and dynamic action. • Area 2: LSI = −1.72 ÷ (−0.9). This area has a low
degree of landslide susceptibility.
Varnes [20] explained that there are many factors
that should be considered to analyze landslide hazards. • Area 3: LSI = −0.9 ÷ 0.09. This area has a moderate
Soeters and van Westen [21] divided those factors into five degree of landslide susceptibility.
groups described as follows: • Area 4: LSI = 0.09 ÷ 12.88. This area has a high
(i) Geomorphological factors such as data on terrain degree of landslide susceptibility.
unit, geomorphological sub-unit, types of land- • Area 5: LSI = 12.88 ÷ 14.35. This area has a very
slides. high degree of landslide susceptibility.
(ii) Topographic factors such as data on the digital ter- The results show that the area with a very high level
rain model, slope direction and length, and concavi- of landslide susceptibility is located along the road. This
ties. is consistent with the landslide distribution of the study
area. In terms of geology, the area with high and very
(iii) Engineering geological factors such as data on high susceptibility is mainly in the Song Hien and Dong
lithology, material sequences, the structure of geol- Dang formations, and the areas with low and very low
ogy, and seismic acceleration. susceptibility are mainly in the Cao Bang complex, Pia
(iv) Land use factors such as data on infrastructure de- Oac complex, and Dong Dang formation.
velopment (recent and older) and land use map (re- For other factors, the areas with high and very high
cent and older). landslide susceptibility are mainly distributed in agricul-
tural land and shrub areas; the slope angle is from 22.6◦
(v) Hydrological factors such as data on the drainage, to 42.2◦ . The areas with moderate, low, and very low
catchment area, rainfall, temperature, evaporation, landslide susceptibility are mainly distributed in the forest
and water table map. and rock mountain and any slope angle.
Table 1. Division of the main factors causing the activation of landslide processes in the Tinh Tuc region into information classes
and the weight of these classes.
Table 2. The calculated weights of the landslide factor (Wi ) in the Tinh Tuc region.
Factor (Xi ; i = 1, 2, . . . , 6) Standard deviation (σi ) 1/σi Significance level (I) Weight Xi
1. Slope [◦ ] 3.55 0.28 3 0.13
2. Weathering crust 2.33 0.43 4 0.17
3. Water storage 1.89 0.53 5 0.22
4. Geology 2.02 0.50 5 0.22
5. Land use 1.95 0.51 5 0.22
6. Distance from road [m] 17.09 0.06 1 0.04
5. Conclusion Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and
Based on the results, the subjectivity of expert assess- Technology for their support. This work was supported by
ments can be eliminated when assessing the landslide sus- NDT 67/e-Asia19.
ceptibility of territories. In addition, the combination of
the AHP method and the bivariate statistical method is
relatively simple and provides accurate results when com- References:
[1] E. E. Brabb, “Innovative approaches to landslide hazard and risk
pared to reality. mapping,” Proc. of 4th Int. Symp. on Landslides, pp. 307-324, 1984.
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velopment of time-variant landslide-prediction software consider-
ing three-dimensional subsurface unsaturated flow,” Environmental
Fig. 4. Slope map of Tinh Tuc area. Fig. 7. Geological map of Tinh Tuc area.
Fig. 5. Weathering crust map of Tinh Tuc area. Fig. 8. Land use map of Tinh Tuc area.
Fig. 6. Water storage map of Tinh Tuc area. Fig. 9. Distance from road map of Tinh Tuc area.
Modelling & Software, Vol.85, pp. 172-183, 2016. of their performances,” Nat. Hazards, Vol.69, No.1, pp. 749-779,
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poral landslide prediction methods and techniques,” Korean J. of [5] T.-T. Yu, T.-S. Wang, and Y.-S. Cheng, “Analysis of Factors Trig-
Agricultural Science, Vol.43, No.4, pp. 507-521, 2016. gering Shallow Failure and Deep-Seated Landslides Induced by
[4] H. R. Pourghasemi, H. R. Moradi, and S. M. Fatemi Aghda, “Land- Single Rainfall Events,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.10, No.5, pp. 966-972,
slide susceptibility mapping by binary logistic regression, analyti- doi: 10.20965/jdr.2015.p0966, 2015.
cal hierarchy process, and statistical index models and assessment [6] L. Ayalew, H. Yamagishi, H. Marui, and T. Kanno, “Landslides
Name:
Nguyen Trung Kien Name:
Nguyen Quoc Thanh
Affiliation:
Senior Researcher, Institute of Geological Sci-
Affiliation:
ences, Vietnam Academy of Science and Tech-
Senior researcher, Institute of Geological Sciences, Vietnam Academy of
nology
Science and Technology
Address:
Lane 84, Chua Lang Street, Dong Da, Hanoi, Vietnam
Address:
Lane 84, Chua Lang Street, Dong Da, Hanoi, Vietnam
Brief Career:
2009- Institute of Geological Sciences, Vietnam Academy of Science and
Technology
2014-2018 Ph.D. at Russian State Geological Prospecting University
Selected Publications:
• “Application of the method of analysis hierarchies (AHP) under the
regional landslide hazard assessment (for example area North-West of
Laocai in Vietnam),” Geoinformatika, No.2, pp. 53-66, 2017.
Academic Societies & Scientific Organizations:
• Vietnam Association of Engineering Geology and Environment
(VAEGE)
Name:
The Viet Tran
Affiliation:
Department of Civil Engineering, Thuyloi University
Address:
175 Tay Son, Dong Da, Hanoi, Vietnam
Name:
Vy Thi Hong Lien
Affiliation:
Senior Researcher, Institute of Geological Sciences, Vietnam Academy of
Science and Technology
Address:
Lane 84, Chua Lang Street, Dong Da, Hanoi, Vietnam
Name:
Pham Le Hoang Linh
Affiliation:
Researcher, Institute of Ecology and Works protection
Address:
267 Chua Boc Street, Dong Da, Hanoi, Vietnam