Snow avalanche susceptibility along Mughal Road, North-western Himalaya using geospatial techniques.

The majority of the world's snow-covered mountain regions are at significant natural risk from snow avalanches. The current research attempts to prepare a Snow Avalanche Susceptibility Zonation (SASZ) map of Mughal Road, North-western Himalaya, India using an amalgam of causative factors like Slope angle, Curvature, Slope aspect, Elevation, Topographic Roughness Index (TRI), Distance to Drainage (DTD), Distance to Road (DTR), Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), Earthquake, Topographic Position Index (TPI), Wind Speed, Temperature, Solar Radiation and Ground cover. The conditioning factors were integrated within the GIS environment to delineate Snow Avalanche Susceptibility zones by employing the Weighted Overlay Model (WOM). These factors were weighted based on their relative importance to the occurrence of Snow Avalanches. Moreover, the weights have been adjusted to remove the scale biases. The final Snow Avalanche Susceptibility zonation map identified three zones, viz. high susceptibility zone (23.5%), medium susceptibility zone (31.8%) and low susceptibility zone (44.7%). The model validation was done by relating the Snow Avalanche occurrences in these classes using the ROC-AUC method. The deliverables of the study can be pivotal in managing the Snow avalanche hazard in the region and in minimizing the bio-physical losses emanating thereof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]