Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 999–1022, 2019 https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-19-999-2019 © Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Landslide susceptibility mapping by using a geographic information system (GIS) along the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (Karakoram Highway), Pakistan Sajid Ali1,2, Peter Biermanns1, Rashid Haider3, and Klaus Reicherter1 1Neotectonics and Natural Hazards, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstr. 4–20, 52056 Aachen, Germany 2Department of Earth Sciences, COMSATS Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan 3Geological Survey of Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan Correspondence: Sajid Ali (
[email protected]) Received: 12 February 2018 – Discussion started: 5 March 2018 Revised: 25 February 2019 – Accepted: 31 March 2019 – Published: 7 May 2019 Abstract. The Karakoram Highway (KKH) is an important ator characteristics (ROC), yielding a predictive accuracy of route, which connects northern Pakistan with Western China. 72 %, which is rated as satisfactory by previous researchers. Presence of steep slopes, active faults and seismic zones, sheared rock mass, and torrential rainfall make the study area a unique geohazards laboratory. Since its construction, land- slides constitute an appreciable threat, having blocked the 1 Introduction KKH several times. Therefore, landslide susceptibility map- ping was carried out in this study to support highway au- Landslides are a result of different geodynamic processes thorities in maintaining smooth and hazard-free travelling. and represent a momentous type of geohazard, causing eco- Geological and geomorphological data were collected and nomic and social loss by damaging infrastructure and build- processed using a geographic information system (GIS) en- ings (Vallejo and Ferrer, 2011).