Citation

Xiao L, Zhang Y, Peng G. Sensors (Basel) 2018; 18(12): s18124436.

Affiliation

Engineering Research Institute, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China. gzpeng@ustb.edu.cn.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/s18124436

PMID

30558225

Abstract

The China-Nepal Highway is a vital land route in the Kush-Himalayan region. The occurrence of mountain hazards in this area is a matter of serious concern. Thus, it is of great importance to perform hazard assessments in a more accurate and real-time way. Based on temporal and spatial sensor data, this study tries to use data-driven algorithms to predict landslide susceptibility. Ten landslide instability factors were prepared, including elevation, slope angle, slope aspect, plan curvature, vegetation index, built-up index, stream power, lithology, precipitation intensity, and cumulative precipitation index. Four machine learning algorithms, namely decision tree (DT), support vector machines (SVM), Back Propagation neural network (BPNN), and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) are implemented, and their final prediction accuracies are compared. The experimental results showed that the prediction accuracies of BPNN, SVM, DT, and LSTM in the test areas are 62.0%, 72.9%, 60.4%, and 81.2%, respectively. LSTM outperformed the other three models due to its capability to learn time series with long temporal dependencies. It indicates that the dynamic change course of geological and geographic parameters is an important indicator in reflecting landslide susceptibility.

Language: en

Keywords

China-Nepal Highway; LSTM; landslide susceptibility; machine learning; remote sensing images