Incorporating the effects of topographic amplification in the analysis of earthquake-induced landslide hazards using logistic regression

Abstract

Seismic-induced landslide hazards are studied using seismic shaking intensity based on the topographic amplification effect. The estimation of the topographic effect includes the theoretical topographic amplification factors and the corresponding amplified ground motion. Digital elevation models (DEM) with a 5-m grid space are used. The logistic regression model and the geographic information system (GIS) are used to perform the seismic landslide hazard analysis. The 99 Peaks area, located 3 km away from the ruptured fault of the Chi-Chi earthquake, is used to test the proposed hypothesis. An inventory map of earthquake-triggered landslides is used to produce a dependent variable that takes a value of 0 (no landslides) or 1 (landslides). A set of independent parameters, including lithology, elevation, slope gradient, slope aspect, terrain roughness, land use, and Arias intensity (<i>I_a</i>) with the topographic effect. Subsequently, logistic regression is used to find the best fitting function to describe the relationship between the occurrence and absence of landslides within an individual grid cell. The results of seismic landslide hazard analysis that includes the topographic effect (AUROC = 0.890) are better than those of the analysis without it (AUROC = 0.874).