The study of disaster investigation by using remote sensing on the sichuan-tibet highway in tibet

Highways are very important to Tibet. The Sichuan-Tibetan Highway was selected as the test area in this paper. There are many geological disasters, such as landslides, rockfalls and debris flows etc., occur frequently on the Sichuan-Tibetan Highway, which does great damages to peoples´ life and property. Therefore, mastering the geological status is quite essential to design and maintain the Sichuan-Tibetan Highway in Tibet and prevent disasters. It can be done by using remote sensing methods including the aerial photographs, Landsat TM, CBERS and the Quick Bird data. As the most powerful tool for spatial analysis and spatial database management, the geographical information system (GIS), is a key method on the geological investigation. In this paper, the aerial photographs, Landsat TM, CBERS and the Quick Bird data, together with the technique of geography information system were adopted to investigate the landslides, rockfalls and debris flows on the Sichuan-Tibetan Highway in Tibet. The image geometry correction, image enhancement and the spatial analysis were applied in the process. The results show that there are 324 debris flows, 81 landslides and 367 rockfalls along the line of the Sichuan-Tibetan Highway in Tibet. Compared with the data obtained ten years ago, the landslide and rockfall increased. From the investigation, we think that the integrated application of remote sensing (RS) and the geographical information system (GIS) can promote the development of geological investigation on the Sichuan-Tibetan Highway.