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LANDSLIDE HAZARD ZONATION OF THE NORTH RAILWAY TRACK, IRAN

H.HASSANI

Abstract

Landslide Hazard Zonation (LHZ) is a method to evaluate the risk where there is the potential for landslides. Therefore, many terrain factors affecting the landslides have been exposed firstly. The factors contributing to the hazard in an area can usually be identified, results of the investigations frequently being presented as a landslide hazard zonation map indicating zones of similar risk of the occurrence of a landslide. North railway track is one of the areas susceptible to landslides in Iran, consist of several landslide evidences. The effects include damage or distrurbance to villages, farmlands and railway as well as the exacerbation of erosion of the land surface and consequently an increase in the rate of transportation of sediments. The method of landslide zonation used in this study was based on a simple grid unit. A number of factors contributing to the likelihood of landsliding were considered, including lithology, slope, tectonic and seismotectonic , human activity and hydrology. For each grid unit, the incidence of landsliding and an assessment of the likely contributory factors were recorded in terms of a surface percentage index. A computer program was written using fuzzy sets to calculate the LHZ for each unit. This was used to prepare the LHZ map. Finally, the study area has been classified into five classes of relative landslide hazard, namely, very low, low, moderate, high and very high. The result shows that the study area with nearlly 20.2 percent of its surface being affected by high and very high landslide hazard.

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