Landslide detection and inventory updating using the time-series InSAR approach along the Karakoram Highway, Northern Pakistan

Karakoram Highway (KKH) is frequently disrupted by geological hazards mainly landslides which pose a serious threat to its normal operation. Using documented inventory, optical imagery interpretation, and frequency-area statistics, the features of slope failure, the spatial distribution, and their link to numerous contributing factors have all been effectively explored along the KKH. An updated inventory for the area was recreated using the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) persistent scatterer (PS) technology to further investigate millimetre-accurate measurements of slope deformation (V-slope). Utilizing the PS approach, Sentinel-1 data from Jan 2018 to Jan 2022 were processed by which we obtained a deformation rate (V-Slope) that varies between 0 and 364 mm/year. A total number of 234 landslides were cited from the literature and classified while 29 new potential landslides were detected and several pre-existing landslides were redefined by the InSAR approach, which was incorporated to generate an updated landslide susceptibility model with 86.6% of prediction precision in the area under curve method. As previous studies done by applying the InSAR technique incorporated a short span temporally and they missed some highly deforming zones like Budalas and Khanabad landslides, contain mean velocities>50 mm/yr, which we studied individually in this work. In this study, a comprehensive application of the InSAR technique to assessing its performance in detecting and analysing landslides has been applied. The deformation velocity (V-slope) model shows high displacement in some regions, which needed to be further investigated by geoscientists, and the updated developed landslide inventory and susceptibility map can be used for land use planning and landslide mitigation strategies.

Automated summary

This study utilized InSAR technology to create an updated inventory and measure the deformation velocity of landslides along the Karakoram Highway. The features, spatial distribution, and contributing factors of landslides were effectively explored, and an updated landslide susceptibility model was generated. The results showed high deformation velocity in certain regions, which requires further investigation, and the updated inventory and susceptibility map can be utilized for land use planning and landslide mitigation strategies.