Tempo-spatial impact assessment of landuse land covers on slope stability through GIS modeling at Raigad district of Maharashtra

Landslides are one of the disasters that cause human, property and other losses. Landslides occur on the sloppy terrain resulted by sudden movement of top surface. The topmost layer is very fertile and mostly used for agriculture purposes. Over the years due to flooding, heavy rains and natural calamities, the top surface of the earth gets washed away resulting in decrease in soil strength in the form of nutrients and fertility. The other main cause is deforestation because trees hold the top layer of the soil and prevent it from washing off along with the water flow. Due to rapid urbanization and over population settlements are being constructed on the slope terrain and infrastructure is being developed along the slopes which includes deforestation. This causes loosening of top soil layer and sudden movement of land masses resulting in landslides, mainly occurs in hilly regions and complex terrains with slope variations. When the landslides occur in human settlement areas it results in disastrous condition. In this research, four land slide prone areas in Maharashtra, India have been identified and analyzed to understand the role of tpographic terrain on parameters affecting the landslides. Different DEM datasets—Advanced Land Observing Satellite-1 Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Radiometer and CARTOSAT are used to analyze the variation in the elevation over the years. The results can be used to understand the slope variability which can be used for landslide mitigation plans.