An earthquake-induced landslides risk assessment model using the modelBuilder of ArcGIS

Earthquake commonly triggers landslides and induced huge disasters in mountainous regions, claims a great number of casualties and has been a major cause of damage to transport system. One of the recent examples is the Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake of May 2008. Some attempts have been made to identify and zone the landslides hazards and to present them in the form of maps or inventories. However, at present, few methods have been developed for operational rapid evaluation and response to the landslide hazards during seismic events. In this paper, a simple but effective risk evaluation model for earthquake-induced landslide is introduced, which was developed using ModelBuilder in ArcGIS systems. Based on the analysis of the relationship between causative factors and landslide occurrence, the model is designed to facilitate quantitative and qualitative representation of earthquake conditions and knowledge on the geology, geomorphology. At the end of this article, the Wenchuan earthquake-induced landslides risk assessment map is presented, using the basic datasets only, which shows a good consistency with the investigation results.