LANDSLIDE VULNERABILITY ASSESMENT (LVAs) IN LUYANG AREA, KOTA KINABALU, SABAH, MALAYSIA

Abstract
Landslide issues in Malaysia is successfully attract the interest and attention of stakeholders and the community of scientists to reduce the risk. Landslides are influenced by many factors that range from the intensity, duration and extent of a triggering factor (e.g. earthquake and rainfall) to the local physical conditions such as landform, morphological, geological materials and structures, hydrological and land uses. In this paper, we present the results of the Landslide Vulnerability Assessment (LVAs). Vulnerability is defined as the degree of losses of a given element at risk of being exposed to the occurrence of a landslides of a given magnitude or intensity, and often expressed on a scale of 0 (no loss) to 1 (total loss). The selection of the best LVAs depends on the exposed elements, landslide types and the scale of analysis. The concept of LVAs also refers to the feasibility of elements at risks on engineering structures, infrastructure facilities, communication systems, commercial (including insurance disclosures) and social. The vulnerability parameters include in assessing LVAs in this study are 1) physical implication (building structures, internal materials, property damage, infrastructural facilities and stabilization actions), social status (injury, fatalities, safety, loss of accommodation and public awareness) and interference on environment (affected period, daily operation & diversity). LVAs for study area produced by combining or overlaid of all Physical Vulnerability (Vp), Social Vulnerability (Vs) and Environmental Vulnerability (Ve) maps. The results for the Total of LVAs indicates that 30% (0.90 sq.m) of the study area classified as Very Low, 8% (0.24 sq.m) as Low, 8% (0.24 sq.m) as Moderate, 28% (0.84 sq.m) as High, 8% (0.24 sq.m) as Very High and 18% (0.54 sq.m) as Extremely High. Landslide Vulnerability level at a “high” to “very high” degree can leave an impact on individuals and society. This study found that residential, commercial, public and industrial infrastructure has higher vulnerability rather than the agricultural and forestry areas. This LVAs approach is suitable as a guideline for preliminary development planning, control and manage the landslide hazard / risk in the study area and potentially to be extended with different background environments.