Machine learning methods for landslide susceptibility studies: A comparative overview of algorithm performance

Landslides are one of the catastrophic natural hazards that occur in mountainous areas, leading to loss of life, damage to properties, and economic disruption. Landslide susceptibility models prepared in a Geographic Information System (GIS) integrated environment can be key for formulating disaster prevention measures and mitigating future risk. The accuracy and precision of susceptibility models is evolving rapidly from opinion-driven models and statistical learning toward increased use of machine learning techniques. Critical reviews on opinion-driven models and statistical learning in landslide susceptibility mapping have been published, but an overview of current machine learning models for landslide susceptibility studies, including background information on their operation, implementation, and performance is currently lacking. Here, we present an overview of the most popular machine learning techniques available for landslide susceptibility studies. We find that only a handful of researchers use machine learning techniques in landslide susceptibility mapping studies. Therefore, we present the architecture of various Machine Learning (ML) algorithms in plain language, so as to be understandable to a broad range of geoscientists. Furthermore, a comprehensive study comparing the performance of various ML algorithms is absent from the current literature, making an assessment of comparative performance and predictive capabilities difficult. We therefore undertake an extensive analysis and comparison between different ML techniques using a case study from Algeria. We summarize and discuss the algorithm's accuracies, advantages and limitations using a range of evaluation criteria. We note that tree-based ensemble algorithms achieve excellent results compared to other machine learning algorithms and that the Random Forest algorithm offers robust performance for accurate landslide susceptibility mapping with only a small number of adjustments required before training the model.