This paper presents a new region-based preparatory factor, total flux (TF), for landslide susceptibility models (LSMs). TF takes into account the topography and hydrology conditions upstream of each gridded data cell and represents the total flux of water in the stream. The results show that TF is strongly associated with the occurrence of landslides and is a good preparatory factor for LSM. Using TF instead of a drainage distance factor in I-Lan region in Taiwan shows an improvement in the accuracy of the cumulative percentage of landslide occurrence of 44 and 14 % for the top 1 and 10 % susceptible areas, respectively. This significant improvement in accuracy in these high-risk areas is critical for preventing and mitigating the economic and human losses due to landslides.