1

Assessment of Landslide Vulnerability with Special

Reference of Chhinka Village in Uttarakhand

R. C. Nazare, M. T. Shelar, S. S. Deshmukh 1

B.Tech Student, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Walchand College of Engineering Sangli,
India,416415, Email: rushinazare@gmail.com, manoharshelar2261995@gmail.com,
shambhavideshmukh7@gmail.com

P. K. Deshpande 2
Associate Professor, Geology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Walchand College of Engineering
Sangli, Maharashtra, India, 416415, Email: purushottam.deshpande@walchandsangli.ac.in

landslide susceptible area the major part of

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to discuss a
number of issues related to the use of spatial
information for physical vulnerability assessment.
This study offers a semi-quantitative assessment
of the physical vulnerability of buildings to
landslides in Chhinka village of Chamoli District in
Uttarakhand State of India. The last few decades
have shown a very fast development in the
application of digital tools such as Geographic
Information Systems, Digital Image Processing,
Digital Photogrammetry and Global Positioning
Systems. The physical vulnerability assessment
was based landslide hazard zonation mapping as it
focuses on hazardous zones only.The vulnerability
values given by experts who know the study area
and have done a lot of research. The obtained
vulnerabilities vary from 0.2 to 1 as a function of
the structural building types. In relation to hazards
and disasters,
Vulnerability is a concept that links the
relationship that people have with their
environment to social forces and institutions and
the cultural values that sustain and contest them.
Landslide Hazard Zonation and obtained
information has specified some vulnerable zones
for which ground trothing was done several times.
The local economy, overall cash flow, current rates,
building structures and risk zones are cross
checked and modified accordingly.
INTRODUCTION:-
VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS:
Vulnerability assessment can be done
using landslide hazard zonation mapping. The
landslide hazard zonation mapping facilitates us to
focus on hazardous zones only, rather than
covering entire study area. After tracing out the
vulnerability is covered by collecting information
by repeated site visits and part information
gathered by spatial layers integration.
In this research the semi- qualitative
approach has been used. This approach is the
combination of qualitative and quantitative
methods. As all information cannot be collected in
numerical values and gathered in descriptive type
or categorised in terms of ‘very high’, ‘high’,
‘moderate’, ‘low’ and ‘very low’ and type of
damage etc is the qualitative type information. On
the other hand some information is gathered only
in numerical values and the losses can be
quantified. The quantitative approach facilitates
us the way to calculate the hazard or to calculate
vulnerability.
The main difference among qualitative and
semi-quantitative approaches is the assignment of
weights under certain criteria which provide
numbers as outcome instead of qualitative classes.
Semi-quantitative approaches consider a number
of factors that have an influence on the
vulnerability. A range of scores and settings for
each factor may be used to assess the extent to
which that factor is favourable or unfavourable to
the occurrence of hazard and the losses or
consequence. The matrix of hazards and
consequences is used to obtain a ranked value.
 Material Type of Structure Weights
2
Masonry Rubble Stone 0.9
This is done by combining a set of hazard Earth Brick 0.9
categories with a set of consequence categories. Stone Masonary with soil 0.9
During repeated site visits the information has mortar with tile or sheet roofing
been collected regarding population, types and Stone 0.8
details of buildings, transportation system, details Masonary
of lifelines as water supply, electricity, with
communication network, medical and educational Cement
facilities etc. the information of past events has mortar
also been collected in terms of nature and cause with tile or
of occurrence, number of lives suffered, details of sheet
damaged buildings, roads, lifelines, essential roofing
facilities, agricultural farmlands, other income Brick masonary with Cement 0.7
sources, environment by deforestation, mortar with tile or sheet roofing
degradation, erosion and disturbed ecosystem. Reinforce RCC framed structure 0.6
d Resistant Design (ERD) 0.5
Concrete
VULNERABILITY ASSESMENT: Steel Steel Structure 0.5
Based on the above information the Wood Wood Structure 0.8
vulnerability assessment has done. First the The physical vulnerability is calculated by
vulnerability is assessed for different types of assessing indicators like building, transportation,
vulnerability as social, physical, economical and lifeline, and essential facilities.
environmental with different parameters. After Building vulnerability assessment:
calculating all different vulnerabilities, according In order to analyze building vulnerability,
to importance the value of damage has been following information has been collected:
calculated. 1] Location of property,
2] Number of buildings,
3] Average building size and
PHYSICAL VULNERABILITY ASSESMENT: 4] Type of buildings.
Physical vulnerability is potential for In this research the building vulnerability has been
physical impact on the built environment and analyzed by using following indicators:
population. It is defined as the degree of potential 1] Building density,
loss, to a given element-at-risk or set of 2] Building type and
elements-at-risk, resulting from the occurrence of 3] Building vulnerability classes.
a natural phenomenon of a given magnitude; it is For estimation of the building vulnerability
expressed on a scale from 0 (no damage) to 1 the buildings are subdivided into different
(total damage). Physical vulnerability is not a vulnerability classes on the basis of building
spatial component, but is determined by the structure types and construction material used.
spatial overlay of exposed elements-at-risk and The vulnerability classes have been
hazard footprints. assigned to buildings based on several attributes
 3

like number of floors, materials, and age of unpaved roads, expressing the area and length of
building.The building density, building types and these per Sq.Km. These have been combined into
building vulnerability classes were weighted using road vulnerability using the following weights:
a pair wise method and combined into a final Lifeline vulnerability and Essential facilities:
qualitative building vulnerability map. Lifelines are those networks that provide
basic services to the population, such as water
supply, electricity supply, telecommunications
networks, mobile telephone network, and the
Table 1-Illustration of building types with its sewage system.
Essential facilities are those facilities that
Sr. Type of Resistanc Damage provide services to the residents and should be
No. Building e functional after a disaster event. Essential
structure facilities include medical centers and schools have
1 Stone Masonary Less Major been considered in this research.
with cement Damage-
mortar. Collapse of
walls and roof
may occur
2 Load bearing Medium Partial
structures of Damage –
brick walls. Collapse of
Walls with Types of Description Weigh
damage to Physical ts
roof. Vulnerability
3 RCC framed Medium Minor Lifeline Electricity power 0.8
structures. Damage- vulnerability supply
Cracks occur Tele 0.2
in wall and or -communications
roof. Mobile telephone 0.2
construction material. network
Essential School 0.5
facilities
Table 2- Illustration of building types with its
Table 3- Illustration of lifeline and essential
resistance and damage.
facilities types with its weights.

Transportation Vulnerability Assessment:

Summary of Physical Vulnerability:
The transportation vulnerability
As the physical vulnerability is the
assessment has been carried out by weighing the
combination of building, transportation, lifeline,
importance of road types. Road maps have been
and essential facilities it is summarized as below.
prepared for district roads, paved roads and
 4

Social vulnerability is the potential impact

Types of Physical Description of events on vulnerable groups within a society
Weig
Vulnerability hts(residents, children, elders, handicapped persons,
1] Building Stone Masonary with soil single parent households, pregnant women etc.).
0.9
vulnerability mortar with tile or sheet How much population is affected has been
roofing calculated in social vulnerability assessment. In
Stone Masonary with this study the social vulnerability has been
0.8
Cement mortar with tile assessed using semi-qualitative method. In this
or sheet roofing method the information gathered is partially
RCC framed structure qualitative like details of buildings, information of
0.6
2] Bitumen paved road event, name of village, roads and essential
0.8
Transportation Unpaved road facilities available in the area and partially
0.1
Vulnerability quantitative information like numbers of lives and
properties in the affected area of settlement and
Types of Description Weights
roads etc.
Vulnerability
Estimation of Population suffered:
1] Economic Agricultural 0.90
The vulnerability of population has been
Vulnerability sector
subdivided in the direct physical vulnerability of
Tourism sector 0.30
the population (injury, casualties, and
Services 0.10
homelessness) which has been evaluated here.
Economic Vulnerability 0.43
3] Lifeline Water supply 0.8
vulnerability Electricity power supply 0.8Table 5 - Illustration of severity levels with
Telecommunications 0.2 its description.
Mobile telephone 0.2
network Following building vulnerability study, the
4] Essential Medical centers 0.6
analysis of damaged buildings effects on
facilities School 0.5
occupants is of further most importance. For the
Physical Vulnerability 0.57
evaluation of live losses, it is crucial to define the
injury in severity classes, severity of event, type of
Table 4- Summary of Physical Vulnerability. structures, resistance of structures and damage to
the structures. The detailed classification of all
above parameters for estimation of life injury is
given below.
The vulnerability of landslide is dependent
on its severity, number of people suffered, type of
structure affected and resisting power of
structures. By combining these factors the
SOCIAL VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT:
 5

damage has been classified for affected houses etc.).

and people with respect to severity of event. To analyze the environmental vulnerability the
following indicators are taken:
Table 6- Illustration of affected population Severity Description Weight
with types of structure and its damage. level s
1 Life threatening 0.2
experience which if not
ECONOMIC VULNERABILITY:
treated adequately the
structural failure may
Economic vulnerability is defined as the
occur.
potential impact of hazards on economic assets
2 Homeless 0.5
and processes (i.e. agricultural damage, business
3 Minor Injury requiring 0.6
interruption, secondary effects such as increased
basic medical aid without
poverty, and job loss). As the main source of
hospitalization.
income in this area is farming and tourism, the
4 Major Injury requiring 0.7
economic vulnerability is dependent on these
hospitalization for greater
points. To analyze the economic vulnerability we
degree of medical care.
have taken into account the following indicators:
5 Death 1

ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY:
Environmental vulnerability instead
evaluates the potential impacts of events on the
Table 7 - Illustration of environmental
indicators with weights.
Sr. Types of Vulnerability Weights
No.
1 Social Vulnerability 0.66
OVERALL VULNERABILITY
2 Physical Vulnerability 0.57
Vulnerability can be aggregated and all types of
3 Economic Vulnerability 0.43
vulnerability combined for overall vulnerability
4 Environmental 0.33
assessment.
Vulnerability
environment (forest, land cover, natural drainage,
soil erosion, flora, fauna, ecosystems, biodiversity,
Table 8 showing Overall Vulnerability.
Types of Description Weights
Vulnerabi
lity Human aspect is always more valuable
1] Land cover 0.35 than physical aspects. So that social vulnerability
Environm Natural drainage 0.45 is given more weights. Physical aspects plays
ental Cultural heritage 0.20 important role for survival of human being, so that
Vulnerabi next importance is given to physical vulnerability.
lity
Environmental Vulnerability 0.33
 6

Social and Physical vulnerability both were given a certain triggering event (e.g. rainfall,
considered more important than economic and earthquake) with a certain magnitude/intensity.
environmental vulnerability. Other essential P(SVT| TM) = Temporal probability.
aspects are economy and environment. Among Conditional probability of triggering any landslide
these the economic vulnerability has given more with any specific volume and type, given a certain
importance as it is the medium of income. activating event (e.g. rainfall, earthquake) with a
Environmental vulnerability was given the lowest certain intensity, within a certain time period.
weight as it is having indirect effects on human
being.

LANDSLIDE RISK ASSESSMENT:

The hazard assessment starts with the
modelling of groundwater depths, based on a
slope hydrology model, where daily rainfall and
the soil characteristics form the main sources of
input. These parameters would form the input in a
vulnerability assessment.

Fig 2- Illustration for calculation of risk for a

landslide situation, in which the specific risk
is consisting of a number of individual
probabilities

P(RX |SVT) = Conditional probability of

Fig 1- Illustration for effects of rainfall and runout. The chance that a run out zone with
terrain characteristics on risk of property distance X to the building will be covered, given
In which: the occurrence of the landslide with a particular
P(SPV | TM ) = Spatial probability. This is the volume and type.
conditional probability of initiating a landslide with P(DB |SVT ) = Conditional probability of
a specific volume and type at a specific location, damage to the building of a particular
 7

construction type, given the occurrence of the vulnerability of the elements at risk might be
landslide with a particular volume and type. problematic, the elements at risk themselves can
CB = Replacement costs of the particular be mapped and classified without many
building. conceptual problems, although the process may
P(IP | DB) = Conditional probability of be quite time consuming. Out of the three hazard
injuries or death for a person present in the deciding elements as demonstrated in equation 1,
house, given the degree of damage to the building the danger part is by a wide margin the most
by a landslide of a given volume and type complex to set up for avalanches. Several of the
P(PH | SVT) = Conditional probability of persons problems associated with determining the
being present in the building, given the time of the temporal and spatial probability of occurrence, the
day that the landslide might occur (or percentage volume of the expected landslide, and the extent
of persons in the building given time of the day) to where the landslide might be moving (run-out
NP = Number of persons in the building zone) is shown in following figure.
The estimation of landslide risk as
indicated above is conceptual. In practice there
are a number of aspects that make landslide risk
assessment a particularly difficult procedure.
Some of these difficulties involved in calculating
landslide risk is shown in fig below. In this figure,
the two schematically represented buildings
(elements at risk) present different vulnerabilities
as they are geographical located in diverse
positions, and might be affected by different types
of landslides and in different ways (undercutting/
impact). Vulnerability is also determined by
construction types, (e.g. building materials,
Fig 3- Illustration of some of the most
foundation types) which determine the strength of
problematic aspects of landslide risk
the building to sustain impact/erosion.
assessment
Besides, due to the use, structure and size,
Therefore, in this research quantitative risk
the value or cost of these buildings will also be
assessment for landslides has been done using
different. While calculating consequences each
Event-based landslide maps. In a medium scale
building will get a different value and for the same
examination occasion based landslide inventory
hazard (e.g. a 20 years return period landslide) the
maps can be made, showing landslides that have
risk will be also different.
been activated by a similar occasion for which the
Furthermore, in calculation of risk to
temporal probability is known. They are used in a
persons the temporal changes in vulnerability also
statistical analysis which results in a landslide
play a major role, both for persons present in
susceptibility map that can be classified in classes
buildings, or in risky locations outside (e.g. roads).
(e.g. high, moderate and low).
Although the determination of the (temporal)
 8

The other approach is called the A is the quantification of the specific type of
quantitative one, which tries to quantify the risk element at risk calculated.
according to the risk definition. The risk has been In order to evaluate these components we
calculated from the equation given below. need to have spatial information as all
Risk = Hazard * Vulnerability * Amount of components of equation [2] vary spatially, as well
elements-at-risk………..1 as temporally. The temporal probability of
By using above equation and spatial data occurrence of the hazard risk (PT) has also a
in a GIS the risk quantification for hazards has spatial component.
been done. The way in which the amount of For hazards as landslides, the location of
elements-at-risk are classified (e.g. as number of future events cannot be identified exactly,
buildings, number of people, economic value or because the areal unit used in assessing hazard is
the area of qualitative classes of importance) also not always identical to the area specifically
defines the way in which the risk is presented. impacted by the hazard. For instance, the
The hazard component in the equation probability of occurrence of landslides within the
actually refers to the probability of occurrence of a high susceptibility zone can be calculated as the
hazardous phenomenon with a given intensity ratio of the landslide area to the high susceptible
within a specified period of time (e.g. annual area, multiplied by the ratio of the area of the
probability). element of study to the high susceptible area. The
To calculate risk quantitatively using above intensity of the hazard changes according to
equation the vulnerability is limited to physical change in place (e.g. landslide volume), and the
vulnerability of the elements-at-risk considered, exposure of the elements-at-risk varies. In many
determined by the intensity of the hazard event risk approaches the term ‘exposure of
and the characteristics of the elements-at-risk (e.g. elements-at-risk’ is included in the risk equation.
building type). But in this research the GIS approach has been
In order to calculate the specific risk the used to facilitate the overlay of the hazard
above equation has been modified in the following footprint with the immediate exposed
way: elements-at-risks for the risk calculation.
RS = PT x P L x V x A ………….2
PT = temporal probability, related to the return Risk Calculations:
period of the triggering event responsible for the PT = 1 year
event-based landslide inventory; Temporal probability, which is related to the
PL = locational or spatial probability that a certain return period of the triggering event responsible
area will be impacted by a landslide. This is for the event-based landslide inventory;
calculated as the landslide density (of the PL = 0.181
particular event based landslide inventory) within Spatial probability that a certain area will be
the susceptibility class. impacted by a
V is the physical vulnerability, for landslides which
has been calculated.
 9

Ty Tempo Spatial Vulne Amount RS = RS = PT x P L x V x A

pe ral Probabi rabilit A PT x P L x

Probab lity y VxA Landslide Hazard Zonation and obtained

ility PL V information has specified some vulnerable zones

PT for which ground truthing was done several times.

1 1 year 0.181 0.57 The local economy, overall cash flow, current rates,
848234 87513
building structures and risk zones are cross
2 1 year 0.181 0.57 4607209 475326/ checked and modified accordingly. This collected
- information then further used for vulnerability

3 1 year 0.181 0.57 287809866 6 assessment. The obtained amount after

8
calculations based on local rates indicates that
Chhinka and Chameli may get hampered for Rs.
3532173/-The value shows there is necessity of
implementation of preventive measures to avoid
the damage intensity.

Total 353217
CONCLUSION :-
3/-
The analysis of the landslide risk for the buildings
of the Chhinka Village enables the stakeholders to
Table 9- Vulnerability Calculations for
focus on the buildings for which the landslide
Chhinka and Chameli
vulnerability and the landslide risk are high.
Landslide risk analysis performed in this work may
Type 1 – Stone masonry with soil mortar
be very useful for insurance companies, which are
Type 2 – Stone masonry with Cement mortar
interested in risk values for buildings, but it may
Type 3 – R.C.C.
not be so useful for end users dealing with spatial
planning and civil protection. Indeed, for spatial
landslide. This is calculated as the landslide
planning stakeholders, it is crucial to know where
density (of the particular event based landslide
future landslides will occur in order to select the
inventory) within the susceptibility class.
safest zones for development purposes. Therefore,
(PL) Landslide Density = Susceptible area / study
a landslide susceptibility assessment like a hazard
area
zonation map is a very useful tool for spatial
= 3533611/19521578
planning, which can be improved with additional
= 0.181
data on landslide magnitude and landslide
V= 0.57 =Physical vulnerability, for landslides
frequency. The Government need to know the
which has been calculated.
landslide risk for buildings that have a vital or
A= A is the quantification of the specific type of
strategic role (e.g. hospitals, schools), but also the
element at risk evaluated.
location of the population that need to be
protected, including the most vulnerable groups of
people.
 10

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Dai, F.C., Lee C.F. and Ngai, Y.Y., 2002.

Landslide risk assessment and
management: an overview.
Engineering Geology, vol. 64, pp.
65-87.

Vulnerability Assessment and Landslide

Risk Analysis. Application to the Loures
Municipality, Portugal, C.
Guillard-Gonçalves, J. L. Zêzere, S. Pereira,
and R. A. C. Garcia , pp. 83-107.

Sati, S. P., Sundriyal, Y.P., Rana Naresh

and Dangwal Surekha., 2011.Recent
landslides in Uttarakhand: nature's fury
or human folly:Current Science, Vol. 100,
pp. 1617-1620.
Ms.Komal, Dr. Asha Thapliyal,
Landslide Vulnerability Assessment of
Pauri
Garhwal Region in Uttarakhand .