In recent decades, the number of rainfall-induced landslides has increased significantly in many parts of Malaysia, especially in the urbanized and hilly areas. The disturbance of hilly morphology as a result of human activities has increased the potential for erosion on man-made slopes, especially during extreme rainfall during rain events. Most hilly areas in Malaysia are covered by a thick layer of soil, which is known to have a significant impact on soil erosion. However, little is known about how soil erosion and rainfall could be the driving force behind landslide initiation, especially on stabilized slopes. Therefore, this study focuses on the soil detachment rate of landslides triggered by rainfall at different rainfall intensities. A sandbox model is used to represent real slope conditions. The relationship between the soil detachment capacity, soil properties (water content, slope, clay layers and soil compaction), hydraulic parameters (flow shear stress and stream power) and rainfall intensities (low, medium and high) was investigated. The results showed that the hydraulic parameters and the rainfall intensity are directly proportional to the detachment rate of the soil. Water content and slope show a higher soil detachment rate and a lower critical flow shear stress than other soil properties. It can be concluded that high saturation and steep slope increase the risk of soil erosion because the cohesion and friction of the soil are significantly reduced, leading to a weakening of the soil structure at the surface. The results of this study can feed into the existing analysis of slope stability and formulate the onset of a landslide triggered by rainfall, especially in eroded soils.

Gravity survey is one of the passive geophysical techniques commonly used to delineate geological formations, especially in determining basement rock and the overlying deposit. Geologically, the study area is made up of thick quaternary alluvium deposited on top of the older basement rock. The Muda River basin constitutes, approximately, of more than 300 m of thick quaternary alluvium overlying the unknown basement rock type. Previous studies, including drilling and geo-electrical resistivity surveys, were conducted in the area but none of them managed to conclusively determine the basement rock type and depth precisely. Hence, a regional gravity survey was conducted to determine the thickness of the quaternary sediments prior to assessing the sustainability of the Muda River basin. Gravity readings were made at 347 gravity stations spaced at 3–5 km intervals using Scintrex CG-3 covering an area and a perimeter of 9000 km² and 730 km, respectively. The gravity data were then conventionally reduced for drift, free air, latitude, Bouguer, and terrain corrections. These data were then consequently analyzed to generate Bouguer, regional and total horizontal derivative (THD) anomaly maps for qualitative and quantitative interpretations. The Bouguer gravity anomaly map shows low gravity values in the north-eastern part of the study area interpreted as representing the Main Range granitic body, while relatively higher gravity values observed in the south-western part are interpreted as representing sedimentary rocks of Semanggol and Mahang formations. Patterns observed in the THD anomaly and Euler deconvolution maps closely resembled the presence of structural features such as fault lineaments dominantly trending along NW-SE and NE-SW like the trends of topographic lineaments in the study area. Based on power spectral analysis of the gravity data, the average depth of shallow body, representing alluvium, and deep body, representing underlying rock formations, are 0.5 km and 1.2 km, respectively. The thickness of Quaternary sediment and the depth of sedimentary formation can be more precisely estimated by other geophysical techniques such as the seismic reflection survey.

The upper part of the Setul Formation and the lower part of the Kubang Pasu Formation are well exposed in Guar Sanai, Perlis due to the earth quarry activities. However, compared to the Hill A and Hill B, the outcrops in Hill C clearly illustrates the influence of structure on the lithostratigraphy of the area. The boundary between the Setul Formation and the Kubang Pasu Formation is marked by the thrust fault generally trending north-south to northeast-southwest and mylonite. The thrust belt associated with folding and uplift clearly developed in the zone between parallel lateral faults (trending north-south and southeast-northwest) and is interpreted to accommodate slip along the transpression zone. The sinistral faults are then deformed by transpression movement of dextral faults (trending east-southwest and east-west) which amplified the earlier structures. The combination of lateral and thrust movements formed flower structure that associated with folding and uplift, commonly found in transpressional zone of the strike-slip region. Deformation has caused the older Setul Formation being uplifted to almost equivalent position to the younger Kubang Pasu Formation and led to the displacement of original bed position and repetition of similar sequences. The formation of folding and reverse faulting associated with left lateral strike-slip fault are interpreted to cause by movement of major fault in the northwest Peninsular Malaysia, known as the Bok Bak Fault.