Impact of land use modifications on landslide occurrences in Environmentally Sensitive Areas of Western Ghats Kerala

Abstract

Landslides are natural disasters that occur on sloping terrain, resulting in human newlinecasualties and economic losses. Climate change and unplanned human interventions have newlineresulted in an increased frequency of landslide occurrences in recent years. India being newlinean emerging country, the large-scale infrastructure expansion and unplanned urbanization newlinehave adverse impacts on the natural environment. The effects of these interventions newlineaggravate natural disasters. Hence, developmental activities need to be evaluated based newlineon their environmental impact. The Western Ghats, one of the eight biodiversity hottest newlinehot spots in the world and listed in the World Heritage Site by the United Nations newlineEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is chosen for this study. newlineThe frequency of landslides occurring in the region has shown a marked increase from newlinethe year 2018. This study aims to assess the impact of human-modified landscapes on newlinelandslide occurrences. The study is carried out in the Environmentally Sensitive Areas newline(ESA) of Western Ghats, Kerala, to aid sustainable conservation of ESA regions by newlineidentifying anthropogenic factors that adversely impact the environment, which newlineeventually result in landslide hazards in particular. newlineLandslide events are selected as the impact measuring instrument for evaluating the newlineeffect of human-modified landscapes. Even though various studies have been carried out newlineto identify landslide susceptibilities, most of them focus on the geological perspective of newlinelandslide occurrences. This research attempts to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic newlineactivities on landslide occurrences along with the geological parameters. The study newlineevaluates landslides on a regional scale within the ESA of the Western Ghats that are newlinedemarcated by both the Gadgil committee in 2011 and the Kasturirangan committee in newline2013. Landslide susceptibility of the region is also explored using spatial models to