Interpretation of landslide from SPOT-5 imageries in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area

Three Gorges Reservoir area is a weak area in terms of ecological environment and an area with frequent landslide hazard disasters. These disasters will cause many negative effects to the Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project as well as the social economy in the reservoir area. In order to decrease the lives and possessions loss brought by landslide disasters, landslide hazard assessment is highly desirable in nowaday disaster prediction. This study addresses the potentials and ability for the use of high-resolution SPOT-5 remote imageries for landslide hazard detection and identification in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. At Wan County, data fusion of panchromatic and multi-spectral SPOT-5 imageries are made to generate a color image, then the fusion image draped over a DEM for 3D simulation is tailored for mapping landslide scarps. Several typical features of landslides that have actually taken place are visually recognized in combination with characteristics of landslide and remote imageries in this area. At last, results examination is necessary for landslide interpretation for precision assessment.