Influencing Physical Characteristics of Landslides in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

Landslide is one of the natural disasters that commonly occurs in terrestrial environments with slopes throughout the world. Located among countries with tropical climates, the hot and humid conditions expose Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to the risk of landslides. This paper aims to delineate the influencing physical characteristics of landslide occurrences in Kuala Lumpur. In this study, a 100 landslides historical data set and eight landslide factors were obtained from proper field validation and maps provided by those concerned in the government, such as distance to roads, distance to streams, elevation, slope angle, curvature, slope aspect, land use, and lithology. These factors were processed using GIS as geospatial analysis provides a useful tool for planning, disaster management, and hazard mitigation. By using ArcMap 10.8.2, a GIS software, different spatial analyses in which maps for each physical factor were layered with landslide events distribution. The weights for each factor were determined using the ANN approach resulting in the slope angle having the highest relative importance with a 100.0% value. In comparison, 8.3% represents the slope aspect as the most insignificant factor out of the eight selected characteristics for this study area. Therefore, a proper perspective and a thorough understanding of the certain slope condition have to be established for future mitigation action to support the agenda of SDG 15.