Development of shallow landslide susceptibility maps incorporating relative spacing index for forest management

This study aims to obtain valuable insights into forest management that can reduce the risk of shallow landslides. We developed shallow landslide susceptibility maps (SLSMs) incorporating tree height and the relative spacing index as indicators of forest management for Cryptomeria japonica and Chama...

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Main Authors: Hiroki Asada, Yuta Hasegawa, Tomoko Minagawa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-12-01
Series:Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665972724001831
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author Hiroki Asada
Yuta Hasegawa
Tomoko Minagawa
author_facet Hiroki Asada
Yuta Hasegawa
Tomoko Minagawa
author_sort Hiroki Asada
collection DOAJ
description This study aims to obtain valuable insights into forest management that can reduce the risk of shallow landslides. We developed shallow landslide susceptibility maps (SLSMs) incorporating tree height and the relative spacing index as indicators of forest management for Cryptomeria japonica and Chamaecyparis obtusa plantations, focusing on the shallow landslides that occurred during the July 2012 Northern Kyushu heavy rain in the Aso region of Kumamoto Prefecture. We created SLSMs by developing a Random Forest model. The explanatory variables included tree height and relative spacing index, topography, geology, rainfall, and other factors totaling eleven factors. The area under the curve for the model was 0.94, indicating very high accuracy. The importance of the relative spacing index was comparatively low. The impact of forest management on shallow landslides was quantitatively assessed via a partial dependence plot for the relative spacing index. The results indicated that the relative spacing index that minimized the landslide probability was 23.7, below the cut-off value that distinguishes between landslide and non-landslide. In addition, the SLSMs indicated that implementing forest management with a uniform relative spacing index of 23.7 could reduce the ‘Very High' susceptibility area by 77.76 ha compared to the case without forest management. The threshold of the relative spacing index obtained in this study are crucial for future plantation forest management practices aimed at reducing the risk of shallow landslides.
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institution Kabale University
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series Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
spelling doaj-art-03ffb35c5e394429abdbd98e67bcc8952024-12-08T06:12:26ZengElsevierEnvironmental and Sustainability Indicators2665-97272024-12-0124100515Development of shallow landslide susceptibility maps incorporating relative spacing index for forest managementHiroki Asada0Yuta Hasegawa1Tomoko Minagawa2Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-8555, JapanSocial Infrastructure Technical Section No.1, Kyushu Infrastructure Technical Dept, ASIA AIR SURVEY CO., LTD, JapanDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan; Corresponding author.This study aims to obtain valuable insights into forest management that can reduce the risk of shallow landslides. We developed shallow landslide susceptibility maps (SLSMs) incorporating tree height and the relative spacing index as indicators of forest management for Cryptomeria japonica and Chamaecyparis obtusa plantations, focusing on the shallow landslides that occurred during the July 2012 Northern Kyushu heavy rain in the Aso region of Kumamoto Prefecture. We created SLSMs by developing a Random Forest model. The explanatory variables included tree height and relative spacing index, topography, geology, rainfall, and other factors totaling eleven factors. The area under the curve for the model was 0.94, indicating very high accuracy. The importance of the relative spacing index was comparatively low. The impact of forest management on shallow landslides was quantitatively assessed via a partial dependence plot for the relative spacing index. The results indicated that the relative spacing index that minimized the landslide probability was 23.7, below the cut-off value that distinguishes between landslide and non-landslide. In addition, the SLSMs indicated that implementing forest management with a uniform relative spacing index of 23.7 could reduce the ‘Very High' susceptibility area by 77.76 ha compared to the case without forest management. The threshold of the relative spacing index obtained in this study are crucial for future plantation forest management practices aimed at reducing the risk of shallow landslides.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665972724001831Shallow landslideEcosystem-based disaster risk reductionForest managementRandom forestRelative spacing index
spellingShingle Hiroki Asada
Yuta Hasegawa
Tomoko Minagawa
Development of shallow landslide susceptibility maps incorporating relative spacing index for forest management
Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
Shallow landslide
Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction
Forest management
Random forest
Relative spacing index
title Development of shallow landslide susceptibility maps incorporating relative spacing index for forest management
title_full Development of shallow landslide susceptibility maps incorporating relative spacing index for forest management
title_fullStr Development of shallow landslide susceptibility maps incorporating relative spacing index for forest management
title_full_unstemmed Development of shallow landslide susceptibility maps incorporating relative spacing index for forest management
title_short Development of shallow landslide susceptibility maps incorporating relative spacing index for forest management
title_sort development of shallow landslide susceptibility maps incorporating relative spacing index for forest management
topic Shallow landslide
Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction
Forest management
Random forest
Relative spacing index
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665972724001831
work_keys_str_mv AT hirokiasada developmentofshallowlandslidesusceptibilitymapsincorporatingrelativespacingindexforforestmanagement
AT yutahasegawa developmentofshallowlandslidesusceptibilitymapsincorporatingrelativespacingindexforforestmanagement
AT tomokominagawa developmentofshallowlandslidesusceptibilitymapsincorporatingrelativespacingindexforforestmanagement