The Prevention of Landslides Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a Geographic Information System (GIS) Environment in the Province of Larache, Morocco

Abstract

Landslides are one of the natural hazards that many countries around the world are facing. In Morocco, the Rif regions are the most affected by these phenomena. Each year they cause enormous damage to the road network and infrastructure, especially in our study region, the province of Larache.The study region is subject to several opening up and road construction projects, which is why it is necessary to predict and identify the most vulnerable areas beforehand, in order to propose measures and techniques which are adequate for protection and reinforcement.The main goal of this study is to develop a susceptibility map to ground movements using a multi-criteria spatial assessment approach, and in order to reduce subjectivity, we have used a method for analyzing such complex decisions, which is the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) implemented in the geographic information system (GIS). Seven factors have been considered as conditioning factors in the occurrence of landslides, which are: lithology, fracturing density, slope, aspect, land use, density of the hydrographic network, and altitude. To verify the results obtained, we performed a correlation analysis of ground movements, already inventoried and verified in the field, with the susceptibility classes that were calculated. This analysis is accompanied by a statistical study.

Design of Cost-Effective and Sustainable Treatments of Old Landslides Adapted to the Moroccan Road Network: A Case Study of Regional Road R410 Crossing the Rifan Structural Domain

“…phase: folds, thrust layers, overlaps, and fracturing [33,34]. In this area, a relatively calm structure is found, consisting of gray marls of the Upper Cretaceous (Senonian mainly), white marls and marl limestones from Eocene, and gray marls with sandstone banks of the Oligo-Miocene (sandstone "Larachian").…”

“…From a geological point of view, the region of Ksar Kbir belongs to the basin of the lower Lokkous (Figure 2), which is located at the limit of the meso-Rifan zone and constitutes the entirety of its eastern and northeastern edge. The structuring of the region is part of the Alpine tectonic evolution that marks the Rif range, the dominant Meso-Cenozoic and Mio-Plio-Quaternary lands record the different structures that mark the major Alpine phase: folds, thrust layers, overlaps, and fracturing [33,34]. In this area, a relatively calm structure is found, consisting of gray marls of the Upper Cretaceous (Senonian mainly), white marls and marl limestones from Eocene, and gray marls with sandstone banks of the Oligo-Miocene (sandstone "Larachian").…”

Landslide Hazard Assessment in the Heterogeneous Geomorphological and Environmental Context of the Rif Region, Morocco – A Machine Learning Approach

“…For example, Hierarchical Fuzzy Inference Systems (HFIS) that were applied in the Rif Mountains' center region (Ozer et al, 2020) and fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) were combined for landslide susceptibility modeling in southeast Morocco (Sadiki et al, 2023); Weight Of Evidence (WOE) was applied in Tetouan-Ras Mazar (Elmoulat & Ait Brahim, 2018), an area of the Rif chain (Es-smairi et al, 2021) and Taounate-Ain Aicha . Logistic regression (LR) was used in Taounate-Oudka and the Sahla catchment area (El-Fengour et al, 2021), while the Analytical Hierarchical Processes (AHP) method was applied in Tangiers (Brahim et al, 2018), the Larache Province (Hamdouni et al, 2022) and parts of the Rif mountains (Es-smairi et al, 2021). However, these methods rely on assumptions about the data, such as normality and linearity, which can limit their accuracy in analyzing complex interrelationships between different causative factors.…”