Landslide spatial probability prediction: a comparative assessment of naive Bayes, ensemble learning, and deep learning approaches

The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the performances of 5 machine learning (ML) techniques for predicting the spatial probability of landslide at Atsuma, Japan, and Mt. Umyeon, Korea. 5 ML models used are Naive Bayes (NB), ensemble learning (random forest (RF) and adaboost (AB)), and deep learning (multilayer perceptron (MLP) and convolutional neural network (CNN)) models. Real landslide events at the study areas are randomly separated to the training set for landslide mapping and the validation set for assessing performance. To assess the performance of the used models, the resulting models are validated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The success rate curves show that the areas under the curve (AUC) for the NB, RF, AB, MLP, and CNN are 85.1, 88.8, 88.6, 87.5, and 95.0%, respectively, at Atsuma and 68.7, 85.6, 90.5, 81.6, and 92.0%, respectively, at Mt. Umyeon. Similarly, the validation results show that the areas under the curve for the NB, RF, AB, MLP, and CNN are 84.3, 87.1, 87.1, 86.7, and 89.7%, respectively, at Atsuma and 64.9, 85.5, 83.9, 84.7, and 90.5%, respectively, at Mt. Umyeon. In addition, statistical tests such as Chi-square test and difference of proportions test show that all classified landslide susceptibility maps have statistical significance and the significant difference in classified landslide susceptibility maps from different ML models. The comparison results among 5 ML models show that the CNN model had the best performance and NB model had the worst performance in both study areas.

Automated summary

The study compares the performances of 5 machine learning techniques in predicting landslide probability in Japan and Korea. The CNN model performed the best, while the NB model performed the worst. Statistical tests confirmed the significance of all classified landslide susceptibility maps and differences between maps generated by different ML models.