T. V. Ramachandra, Senior Member, IEEE, Uttam Kumar, Student Member, IEEE,
P. G. Diwakar and N. V. Joshi

Abstract -- Landslide is induced by a wide range of ground movements, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes, shallow debris flows, etc. These ground movements are caused when the stability of a slope changes from a stable to an unstable condition. A change in the stability of a slope can be caused by a number of factors acting together such as loss or absence of vegetation (changes in land cover), soil structure, etc. Loss of vegetation happens when the forest patch is fragmented that can be either anthropogenic or natural. Hence land cover mapping with forest fragmentation can provide an opportunity for visualising the areas that require immediate attention from slope stability aspects. In this paper, À Trous algorithm based wavelet transform is used to merge IRS 1D LISS-III MSS (23.5 m) and PAN (5.8 m) images. The fused images are classified using K-nearest neighbour for land cover categories . A fragmentation model is developed to analyse the extent of forest fragmentation in Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, India. This helped in visualising the effect of land use changes in five west flowing river basins in the district. Field investigation of land slide region confirm that land cover plays a very vital role in landslides. Change in land cover in the catchment area of these rivers has triggered landslide.
Index Terms -- Landslide, à trous, multiresolution