Abstract:
The main objective of the study is to prepare landslide susceptibility map of 90 km
section of Karakorum Highway, from Thakot to Dassu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Study area is situated in Karakorum mountainous region where catastrophic landslides
occur frequently and pose a serious threat to local living conditions and one of the major
trade route of Pakistan and China.
This study presents the use of geographical information system (GIS) datasets and
methods to investigate landslide susceptibility in the mountainous terrain of Kohistan,
Battagram and Shangla districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Landslide
susceptibility index map was prepared by combining nine parameters (slope, aspect, plane
curvature, elevation, land cover, distance from road, lithology, distance from faults, and
distance from drainage). The layers for these parameters were prepared in ArcGIS using
weighted overlay method (WOM) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP).
Four different susceptibility zones have been identified in the region. AHP weights
with 0.15 consistency ratio were used in the preparation of final map. The final landslide
susceptibility map of 90 km road section with 2.5km buffer of each side from road,
indicated the low, moderate, high and very high susceptibility classes covering 1% (5.20
km2), 39% (182.69 km2), 50% (235.31 km2), and 10% (47.86 km2) area respectively. Final
map is verified using landslide history acquire from Google imagery and literature.
