This paper focuses on landslide susceptibility prediction in Nanchuan, a high-risk landslide disaster area. The evidential belief function (EBF)-based function tree (FT), logistic regression (LR), and logistic model tree (LMT) were applied to Nanchuan District, China. Firstly, an inventory with 298 landslides was compiled and separated into two parts (70%: 209; 30%: 89) as training and validation datasets. Then, based on the EBF method, the Bel values of 16 conditioning factors related to landslide occurrence were calculated, and these Bel values were used as input data for building other models. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the values of the area under the ROC curve (AUC) were used to evaluate and compare the prediction ability of the four models. All the models achieved good results and performed well. In particular, the LMT model had the best performance (0.847 and 0.765, obtained from the training and validation datasets, respectively). This paper also demonstrates the superiority of integration and optimization of models in landslide susceptibility evaluation. Finally, the best classification method was selected to draw landslide susceptibility maps, which may be helpful for government administrators and engineers to carry out land design and planning.

The main purpose of this paper is to use ensembles techniques of functional tree-based bagging, rotation forest, and dagging (functional trees (FT), bagging-functional trees (BFT), rotation forest-functional trees (RFFT), dagging-functional trees (DFT)) for landslide susceptibility modeling in Zichang County, China. Firstly, 263 landslides were identified, and the landslide inventory map was established, and the landslide locations were randomly divided into 70% (training data) and 30% (validation data). Then, 14 landslide conditioning factors were selected. Furthermore, the correlation analysis between conditioning factors and landslides was applied using the certainty factor method. Hereafter, four models were applied for landslide susceptibility modeling and zoning. Finally, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and statistical parameters were used to evaluate and compare the overall performance of the four models. The results showed that the area under the curve (AUC) for the four models was larger than 0.74. Among them, the BFT model is better than the other three models. In addition, this study also illustrated that the integrated model is not necessarily more effective than a single model. The ensemble data mining technology used in this study can be used as an effective tool for future land planning and monitoring.

The present review paper focuses on selected cases around the world of land subsidence phenomena caused by the overexploitation of aquifers. Land subsidence is closely related to human activity. In particular, the development of technology has led to an exponential increase in industrial and agricultural production, as well as extensive urbanization, mainly in large cities. The action of those parameters, along with the effects of climate change, has led to further increases in water demands, which have mainly been served by overexploitation of the aquifers. Overexploitation, in conjunction with broader geo-tectonic conditions, can trigger severe land subsidence phenomena, resulting in significant damage affecting the physical and man-made environment. The scope of the present study is to provide a critical review of the existing literature on land subsidence due to aquifer overexploitation and highlight the main causal factors driving this process. The methods developed in the past and their outcomes hold significant importance in sustainable development strategic planning.

Landslides are one of the most frequent and important natural disasters in the world. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the landslide susceptibility in Zhenping County using a hybrid of support vector regression (SVR) with grey wolf optimizer (GWO) and firefly algorithm (FA) by frequency ratio (FR) preprocessed. Therefore, a landslide inventory composed of 140 landslides and 16 landslide conditioning factors is compiled as a landslide database. Among these landslides, 70% (98) landslides were randomly selected as the training dataset of the model, and the other landslides (42) were used to verify the model. The 16 landslide conditioning factors include elevation, slope, aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature, distance to faults, distance to rivers, distance to roads, sediment transport index (STI), stream power index (SPI), topographic wetness index (TWI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), landslide, rainfall, soil and lithology. The conditioning factors selection and spatial correlation analysis were carried out by using the correlation attribute evaluation (CAE) method and the frequency ratio (FR) algorithm. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and kappa data of the training dataset and validation dataset are used to evaluate the prediction ability and the relationship between the advantages and disadvantages of landslide susceptibility maps. The results show that the SVR-GWO model (AUROC = 0.854) has the best performance in landslide spatial prediction, followed by the SVR-FA (AUROC = 0.838) and SVR models (AUROC = 0.818). The hybrid models of SVR-GWO and SVR-FA improve the performance of the single SVR model, and all three models have good prospects for regional-scale landslide spatial modeling.

Geological complexities along mountain highways frequently trigger landslides, posing significant threats to transportation safety and infrastructure. This study evaluates landslide susceptibility along the Lizha-Jiezi section of China’s G345 national highway using Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) models. Eleven conditioning factors including altitude, slope, aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature, lithology, distance to fault, rainfall, distance to river, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and distance to road were analyzed using remote sensing and field surveys. A landslide inventory of 67 events was divided into training (70%) and validation (30%) datasets, with non-landslide samples selected at least 100 m away from landslide locations to minimize spatial overlap. Factor contribution analysis identified distance to road as the most significant predictor, highlighting anthropogenic impacts on slope destabilization. Model validation via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves demonstrated RF’s superior performance (AUC = 0.887) over SVM (AUC = 0.735). The RF-derived susceptibility map classified five risk levels, revealing high-risk zones concentrated within 200 m of roads, consistent with field observations. Results emphasize the necessity of integrating anthropogenic factors into landslide risk management for mountainous infrastructure. This study provides actionable insights for mitigation strategies and land-use planning, offering a scalable framework adaptable to similar regions.

The purpose of this study is to compare nine models, composed of certainty factors (CFs), weights of evidence (WoE), evidential belief function (EBF) and two machine learning models, namely random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM). In the first step, fifteen landslide conditioning factors were selected to prepare thematic maps, including slope aspect, slope angle, elevation, stream power index (SPI), sediment transport index (STI), topographic wetness index (TWI), plan curvature, profile curvature, land use, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil, lithology, rainfall, distance to rivers and distance to roads. In the second step, 152 landslides were randomly divided into two groups at a ratio of 70/30 as the training and validation datasets. In the third step, the weights of the CF, WoE and EBF models for conditioning factor were calculated separately, and the weights were used to generate the landslide susceptibility maps. The weights of each bivariate model were substituted into the RF and SVM models, respectively, and six integrated models and landslide susceptibility maps were obtained. In the fourth step, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and related parameters were used for verification and comparison, and then the success rate curve and the prediction rate curves were used for re-analysis. The comprehensive results showed that the hybrid model is superior to the bivariate model, and all nine models have excellent performance. The WoE–RF model has the highest predictive ability (AUC_T: 0.9993, AUC_P: 0.8968). The landslide susceptibility maps produced in this study can be used to manage landslide hazard and risk in Linyou County and other similar areas.