Hazard assessment of landslide disaster using information value method and analytical hierarchy process in highly tectonic Chamba region in bosom of Himalaya

The present study is focused on a comparative evaluation of landslide disaster using analytical hierarchy process and information value method for hazard assessment in highly tectonic Chamba region in bosom of Himalaya. During study, the information about the causative factors was generated and the landslide hazard zonation maps were delineated using Information Value Method (IV) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) using ArcGIS (ESRI). For this purpose, the study area was selected in a part of Ravi river catchment along one of the landslide prone Chamba to Bharmour road corridor of National Highway (NH-154A) in Himachal Pradesh, India. A numeral landslide triggering geoenvironmental factors i.e. slope, aspect, relative relief, soil, curvature, land use and land cover (LULC), lithology, drainage density, and lineament density were selected for landslide hazard mapping based on landslide inventory. Landslide hazard zonation map was categorized namely very high hazard, high hazard, medium hazard, low hazard, and very low hazard. The results from these two methods were validated using Area Under Curve (AUC) plots. It is found that hazard zonation map prepared using information value method and analytical hierarchy process methods possess the prediction rate of 78.87% and 75.42%, respectively. Hence, landslide hazard zonation map obtained using information value method is proposed to be more useful for the study area. These final hazard zonation maps can be used by various stakeholders like engineers and administrators for proper maintenance and smooth traffic flow between Chamba and Bharmour cities, which is the only route connecting these tourist places.