Pre-conditioning factors and susceptibility assessments of Wenchuan earthquake landslide at the Zhouqu segment of Bailongjiang basin, China

In this study, we present a landslide susceptibility assessment carried out after the devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. For the Zhouqu segment in the Bailongjiang basin in north-western China landslide susceptibility was computed by a logistic regression method. This region has been experiencing landslides for a long time, and numerous additional slope failures were triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. The data used for this study consists of slope failures attributed to the 2008 earthquake, the 878 post Wenchuan earthquake landslides and collapses inventory build up by combination the field investigation, monoscopic manual interpretation, image classification and texture analysis using SPOT 5 and ALOS remote-sensing image data. All data derived from remote sensing images are validated during field investigations. The landslide pre-disposing factor database was constructed. A digital elevation model (DEM) with a 30 × 30 m resolution, orthophotos, geological and land-use maps and information on peak ground acceleration data from the 2008 earthquake is used. The statistical analysis of the relation between Wencuan earthquake-triggered landslides and pre-disposing factors show the great influence of lithological and topographical conditions for earthquake-triggered slope failures. The quality of susceptibility mapping was validated by splitting the study area into a training and validation set. The prediction capability analysis showed that the landslide susceptibility map could be used for land planning as well as emergency planning by local authorities in this region.