GIS MODELLING FOR DELINEATING LANDSLIDE PRONE AREAS IN GARHWAL HIMALAYA

Abstract

Landslides are complex natural hazards occurring in some well-defined geographical space. These activities are the outcome of several factors like land slope, geology, human activity etc. The severity of these activities is reflected in the economic and human loss. It has been found that in developing countries, economic loss due to landslide is about 0.25 to 0.5% the GNP. The damage and losses due to landslides can be minimized if the areas prone to slides are delineated and these areas are protected from further degradation by eco-regeneration program and restricting the human interference. As delineation of landslide prone areas involves integration of varied and large data set therefore for sake of simplicity, the present study has been carried out in GIS environment. For this a GIS based model has been proposed and solution was obtained in optimal manner. The model was implemented in Garhwal Himalayas. It was found that GIS was very useful in data registration, integration and analysis. The customized approach, presented in this study may be used to delineate landslide prone areas confidently. iv