An interpretable model for landslide susceptibility assessment based on Optuna hyperparameter optimization and Random Forest

AbstractThis study proposed an interpretable model that combines Random Forest (RF), Optuna hyperparameter optimization, and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) to achieve optimal landslide susceptibility evaluation and provide explanations in the northwest region of Yunnan Province in China. First, an inventory of 4447 landslides and 23 related factors was considered for the landslide susceptibility assessment. Subsequently, a hyperparameter-optimized RF model was developed using the Optuna framework and the training dataset to generate landslide susceptibility maps. The performance of the models were evaluated using accuracy (ACC), precision (PPV), recall (TPR), F1-score (F1), and the Area Under the Curve (AUC) based on the Receiver Operating Characteristic. Furthermore, the interpretability of the model was enhanced through the implementation of SHAP. The proposed model demonstrated outstanding performance on the test set, achieving an ACC of 0.7792, PPV of 0.7448, TPR of 0.8769, F1 of 0.8055, and an AUC of 0.8387. The interpretability analysis revealed that elevation, population density, distance from roads, and normalized difference vegetation index were the primary factors influencing landslide occurrences in the study area. This study provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating landslide susceptibility in specific regions and offers invaluable insights for the prevention and management of landslide disasters.