Landslides constitute one of the major natural catastrophes, which account for considerable loss of life and damage to communication routes, human settlements, agricultural and forestland. Most of the terrain in mountainous areas have been subjected to slope failures under the influence of variety of terrain factors and figured by events such as extreme rainfall or earthquake. In India, landslides are occurring frequently in Himalayan region in North and Western Ghats in South. Advancement in remote sensing technology will enable us to identify the finer features on the terrain and to create high resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Most of the landslide modeling using GIS involves contour interval of 20 metres or 10 metres and thematic maps generated from remote sensing data of resolution 30 and 5.8 metres. This paper evaluates the landslide hazard zonation using different kinds of spatial data (aerial photographs, satellite imagery) and also discusses the technological improvements in remote sensing sensors which greatly influence the accuracy of Landslide Hazard Zonation (LHZ) mapping.
Remote sensing and GIS plays a very important role in preparation of LHZ. Many thematic maps such as geology, geological structures, landforms, landuse/landcover, slope, drainage, and aspect are needed for this purpose.
