The Influence of Land Use and Land Cover Change on Landslide Susceptibility in the Lower Mekong River Basin

Landslides are responsible for causing devastating property damage and loss of life around the world. Many areas in the Lower Mekong River Basin experience frequent landslides every year, especially during the monsoon season. These disasters are mostly triggered by large rainfall events, but changes in land use and land cover (LULC) have been found to influence slope stability in other parts of the world. In this study, the influence of multi-temporal land use and land cover changes on landslide susceptibility are evaluated in the Lower Mekong Basin in Southeast Asia. In this study, frequency and frequency ratio analyses are performed to quantify the relationship between land use and land cover change and landslide susceptibility from 1995 to 2015. A detailed landslide inventory map from a significant rainfall event that occurred in 2015 in Chin, Myanmar is used for analysis with yearly LULC maps produced by the SERVIR Land Cover Portal. In particular, areas that experience deforestation for agricultural expansion were found to be the most susceptible to landslides based on frequency ratio. Following analysis, the LULC is used as an input variable for an empirical landslide susceptibility model that also incorporates other variables such as distance to roads, seismicity, slope, and lithology. A better understanding of the effects of LULC on landslide susceptibility can be useful for local land and disaster management and for the implementation of LULC in future susceptibility models. Using a dataset that is unique to the Lower Mekong region, this study provides additional insights into the relationship between LULC and landslide activity to better inform regional and global modeling.