Landslide susceptibility assessment of national highway 1D from Sonamarg to Kargil, Jammu and Kashmir, India using frequency ratio method

This study is an attempt to carry landslide susceptibility assessment along national highway 1D a lifeline to the Ladakh region using Frequency Ratio Method in GIS environment. The landslide influencing factors which have been investigated to form the frequency ratio matrix are a slope, lithology, rainfall, landuse, distance to road, distance to fault, distance to river, altitude, soil, and slope aspect. The study identified and mapped active landslides along national highway 1D through rigorous multiple field surveys and secondary sources. The landslides did not show any drastic variation in size while the smallest landslide that was identified near Hardas, while the largest one at Zojila Pass. In this study, very high landslide susceptible zone covers thirty-one percent of the study area, while high, moderate, low, and very low landslide susceptible zones cover eleven, eight, eighteen, and thirty-two percent of the study area, respectively. The results show that the major area falls under very high and high landslide susceptibility zones constituting forty-two percent of the study area. The villages which fall under these zones are Sonamarg, Gumri, Pandras, and, Matayan and thus are highly prone to landslide activity and there is a frequent incidence of traffic disruptions along the road. There certainly arises a need to take concrete measures to minimize human and economic losses along the highly susceptible areas.