EXTRACTION OF LANDSLIDE AREAS USING SATELLITE REMOTE

SENSING AND GIS TECHNOLOGY

Masaaki SHIKADA,Noboru MURAMATU,Takashi KUSAKA
and Shintaro GOT0
Kanazawa Institute of Technology
Nonoichi-machi Ishikawa 921, JAPAN
Tel:+8 1-762-94-6712 Fax:+8 1-762-94-6713
E-mail shikada @ manage.kanazawa-it .ac.jp
Abstract
The objective of this study is to find areas where landslides

danger of landslide areas using thematic maps and satellite

remote sensing data but didnt consider watershed in the

may occur in the near future by using satellite remote

pilot areas.

sensing data and thematic-map data related to landslide areas

In this paper, the pilot areas were divided into watershed

with GIS (Geographic Information System) techniques.

areas by using GIS (ARC/INFO) on a work station. These

We considered combining Geographical Information

System (GIS) with remote sensing data and thematic map
data may facilitate greatly the assessment and estimation of
regional landslide hazards.

watershed areas were analyzed over various factors.

For each watershed area ,we calculated the area(A) and
averaged the slope(S),BAND6 CCT data(C), NVI(N) and
width of watershed (w) to determine the shape factor (F).
This data was calculated for each watershed area to extract

We extracted inclination angles , inclination aspects, and

ridge and valley lines from DTM data originally made by us

the factors of landslides.

for landslide areas. Watershed in study areas were extracted

Finally, it is shown that the value of factors for pilot areas

by GIS techniques. Finally we proposed values to predict

landslide areas.

are significantly different for areas where landslides did or

did not occur in the past.

INTRODUCTION

NOT0 PENINSULA WATERSHED PILOT AREA

Satellite imagery has been used to clarify characteristic

properties of ground surface by the advantage of broad area
observation and periodicity. We considered that the remote
sensing data from space gives us useful advice on natural
hazards. We have already conducted analysis using remote
sensing data and thematic map data respectively. Estimation
of landslide areas , however, has been considered very
difficult because the complexity of the principal

In the Noto peninsula of Hokuriku district in Japan, where

we have investigated, most landslide hazards occur near
streams in valleys. The area of this pilot site is about 600

km2 in an altitude lower than 600m.

The geology of this district comes from the tertiary era
with tertiary mudstone , sandstone and basaltic lava as the
general geotypes. As it is well known that landslides occur

factors and their relationships to each other is

wide ranging.
In this study , the following thematic maps
were prepared for GIS (Geographic Information
System) analysis . They were geologic type
maps, landslide distribution maps ,and altitude
and inclination angle data taken from U25000
and 1/100000 scale maps. These maps were
digitized to overlap with each other for GIS
analysis. We also used satellite remote sensing
data to overlap those thematic maps. In
previous investigations , we estimated the
Fig. 1 Birds-eye view of the Monzen
0-7803-2567-2195 $4.00 0 1995 IEEE

377

frequently in geology of this era, t h s pilot area is of no

exception. We counted the areas where landslides
occurred in the past and are predictable in the near future
from landslide distribution maps which were made by the
Ministry of Construction , Forest Agency and Ishikawa
prefecture. They were over 700 (equaling about
290km2 ) and about 200 (equaling about 80 km2)
respectively. Figure 1 shows the birds - eye view of the
Monzen district. This picture was made by GIS software
(ARCIINFO) using only elevation data of 30m*30m
mesh size.

METHOD AND TECHNIQUES

Fig.2 Main river and tributary formation in theMonzen

Data acquisition
Digitizing of maps was neccesary in order to overlap
with other digital data. These maps included geological
type, landslide type and contour maps. Furthermore, we
used TM data in daytime and thermal band data at night
in order to estimate the ground surface temperature taken
from the relationship of the underground water
temperature which we thought to be a great factor in the
occurrence of landslides. As we thought landslide and
nonlandslide areas to have different vegetation, we
calculated NVI (Normalized Vegetation Index) values
from TM data in for all the investigated areas. Generally
speaking , changes in NVI reflects the variety of
vegetation. The reason why we use NVI data is because it
reacts to the condition of vegetation. We can calculate the
shape factor (F) in the pilot areas too.

Fig.3 Watershed areas made by commted river and

- topographc features

Extraction of watershed
Almost all landslide areas in the Noto district occur near
streams in valleys. In these places we observed many wells
to pump out underground-water. It is well known that
landslides closely relate to the amount of underground and
surface water. Therefore, we extracted watershed areas for
investigation by using GIS software on work station. Figure
2 shows the main river and tributary formation in the
Monzen district. We can see small rivers which are not
shown on maps. Figure 3 shows the watershed areas made
by computed rivers (Figure 2) and topographic features. As
a result , the Monzen district was divided into 17
watersheds.

128
127

126

3 125

3 124

E 123

122
121
120

119
118
0

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Proportion of Landslide Area (%)

90

Fig.4 Relationship between Band6 CCT data and the

proportion of landslide areas
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1
:::

0.1 I

0.09

0.08

PI 0.05

rivers. ( 3 ) GIS is able to extract small rivers not existent on

the map. (4) As the proportion of landslide area increases

band6 CCT data decreases. (5) When the proportion of
landslide area was over 70 5% the shape factor F increases

sharply.
These conclusions indicate that combining thematic
maps and satellite data using GIs techniques is successful
estimating and zoning landslide areas.

REFERENCES
Geographic Survey Institute of Japan, Manual of Digital

' '

01 I I
i
I
1
I
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

National Land Information,l986.

Committee of Underground Water Handbook,Underground
Water Handbook,1979.

Proportion of landslide areas

Fig.5 Relationship between shape factor F and the

proportion of landslide areas
ANALYSIS

Evaluation fact-

~-

To assess characteristics of each watershed ,we introduced

the factors ,Cf,Nf and F.
Cf and Nf represent averaged band6 CCT data and
averaged NVI data respectively.
F is shape factor (A/L)/L . A and L represent area of the
watershed and length of the main river in the watershed .
Figure 4 shows the relationship between Band6 CCT data
and the proportion of landslide area to total area in each
watershed. This figure shows that as the proportion of
landslide area increases band6 CCT data decreases. Figure 5
shows the relationship between shape factor and the
proportion of landslide area to total area in each watershed.
Figure 5 has very interesting results which we didn't realize
in the past. When the proportion of landslide area was over
70 % in the watershed the shape factor F increased sharply.

A small value of F meant the total length of the river in the

watershed is short. In those watershed ,we considered that
surface water and rainwater penetrated rapidly
underground.
CONCLUSIONS
An analysis of landslide areas using thematic maps,
satellite remote sensing data and GIS technology has been
performed on the topographic features for watershed. As a
result, we got the conclusion : (1) We can divide pilot areas
into watershed areas by using GIS techniques. (2) The rivers
made automatically by GIS corresponded with the true
379

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