Assessment of Landslide Susceptibility along Mughal Road in the NW Himalayan Region Using the Relative Effect Method

Out of all the hazards, landslides are considered one of the major hazards in the Himalayas. Identification and mapping of such landslide-prone areas is an important task to reduce the upcoming devastation of the environment, infrastructure, and human lives. The central objective of this study was to generate a landslide susceptibility map of the Mughal road Pir Panjal range, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The area is a tourist hub with countless attractions like Hirpora Wildlife Sanctuary, Ali Ibni Top Aliabad Sarai, Peer Gali, Sanga Kas Nala, and Poshiana Top. This is the only alternate route linking Kashmir to Jammu after NH14. The association connecting landslide-affecting elements and the map of the inventory of landslides has been examined by utilizing the relative effect method. Parameters such as slope, aspect, curvature, elevation, land use land cover, lithology, drainage density, lineament density, normalized difference vegetation index, rainfall and road proximity were determined to assess the susceptibility of landslides. The weightage of all the influencing factors with landslide incidence was determined using the relative effect method. The landslide susceptibility index obtained ranged from −5.29 to 2.77 and the landslide susceptibility map generated was divided into five classes as “very high”, “high”, “moderate”, “low” and “very low” based on the natural breaks function. The model was validated using the Receiver Operating Characteristics Curve. The area under curve (AUROC) values for the Success Rate Curve method shows an accuracy value of 0.859, i.e., 85.9%, while for the Prediction Curve, the obtained value was 0.855, i.e., 84.5%. The results obtained from this study can be used to mitigate landslide-induced vulnerabilities. This study would provide valuable inputs to concerned disaster management authorities for devising prevention, management and mitigation policies for areas designated with high and very high landslide vulnerabilities.