Landslide susceptibility mapping using random forest and boosted tree models in Pyeong-Chang, Korea

Abstract

Landslides susceptibility maps were constructed in the Pyeong-Chang area, Korea, using the Random Forest and Boosted Tree models. Landslide locations were randomly selected in a 50/50 ratio for training and validation of the models. Seventeen landslide-related factors were extracted and constructed in a spatial database. The relationships between the observed landslide locations and these factors were identified by using the two models. The models were used to generate a landslide susceptibility map and the importance of the factors was calculated. Finally, the landslide susceptibility maps were validated. Finally, landslide susceptibility maps were generated. For the Random Forest model, the validation accuracy in regression and classification algorithms showed 79.34 and 79.18%, respectively, and for the Boosted Tree model, these were 84.87 and 85.98%, respectively. The two models showed satisfactory accuracies, and the Boosted Tree model showed better results than the Random Forest model.

Keywords:

• Landslide susceptibility
• random forest
• boosted tree
• GIS, Korea

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Basic Research Project of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) funded by the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea. This research (NRF-2015R1A2A2A01005018) was supported by Mid-career Researcher Program through National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST).