Land Use and Land Cover as a Conditioning Factor in Landslide Susceptibility: A Literature Review

Landslides have been catastrophic events in mountainous regions for ages. However, as human populations and economies expand, anthropogenic activities aimed at development have led to significant changes in land use and land cover in these regions. These changes have become crucial factors amplifying the susceptibility to landslides and escalating the threat of such disaster’s multiple times over. There are two different aspects that needs to be understand to measure the susceptibility of landslide in a region. These are landslide hazard and risk to the community. Both these aspects are intricately intertwined with the spatial arrangement of land use and land cover. The occurrence of landslides is contingent upon a variety of geospatial factors, including soil texture and integrity, terrain slope, vegetation cover, drainage patterns, rainfall distribution, and soil erosion dynamics. Simultaneously, the impact of landslides on society, namely the risk posed to communities, is influenced by the availability of resources such as flora, fauna, humans, and infrastructure. Therefore, the assessment of land use and land cover holds immense significance not only in understanding susceptibility to landslide hazards but also in conducting impact assessments and devising effective mitigation strategies. This chapter provides insights into the trends of land use and land cover as conditioning factors in landslide hazards. It explores the contributions of 6,650 authors through the analysis of 3,240 articles published on landslides since 1976. Approximately 33% of these articles explicitly mention the terms “land use” and “land cover” in their abstracts, titles, and/or keywords, constituting contributions from 2,723 authors. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in studies focusing on landslides and the utilization of land use and cover as crucial terms, with the number of articles doubling in the last five years. Publications from the period 2001–2021 account for the top 20% of most cited works, contributing to over 75% of the total citations.