Frequency ratio analysis to determine the landslide susceptibility in East Sikkim district of Indian Himalayan region

Abstract

Landslides are a significant natural disaster causing damage to many mountainous regions worldwide including the Indian Himalayan region. In the East Sikkim district of the Eastern Himalayas, the most used bivariate frequency ratio (FR) model was utilized with high-resolution satellite imagery to understand the susceptibility of the region to landslides. Conditioning factors such as slope aspect, slope angle, slope curvature, drainage density, land use and land cover (LULC), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), lithology, and geomorphology were considered in the analysis. LULC is the most crucial factor contributing to landslide susceptibility with a normalized FR value of 14.1. Slope and geomorphology followed closely with values of 12.5 and 11.8 respectively. In contrast, the least important factors were slope aspect and lithology with values of 8.7 and 9.3 respectively. These results can be used to prioritize landslide conditioning factors (LCF) and generate a final landslide susceptibility map (LSM). By adding the values of all LCFs, a landslide susceptibility index was obtained, and the LSM was zoned into high, medium, and low susceptibility classes covering 23.4%, 44.4%, and 32.2% of the study area respectively. The validity of the method used was confirmed using a receiver operating characteristic curve which yielded an accuracy of 78%. The findings highlight the importance of LULC, slope, and geomorphology as critical factors in landslide susceptibility in the East Sikkim district of the Eastern Himalayas.