PALSAR-2 remote sensing data for detection of hazards zones of geological origin in Kelantan river basin, Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Identification of high potential risk and susceptible zones for natural hazards of geological origin is one of the most important applications of advanced remote sensing technology in tropical environments. Yearly, several landslides occur during heavy monsoon rainfall in Kelantan river basin, Peninsular Malaysia, which are obviously connected to geological structures and topographical features of the region. In this study, the recently launched Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2 (PALSAR-2) onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2), remote sensing data were used to map geologic structural and topographical features in the Kelantan river basin for identification of high potential risk and susceptible zones for landslides and flooding areas. A ScanSAR and two fine mode dual polarization level 3.1 images cover Kelantan state were processed for comprehensive analysis of major geological structures and detailed characterizations of lineaments, drainage patterns and lithology at both regional and district scales. Red-Green-Blue (RGB) colour-composite was applied to different polarization channels of PALSAR-2 data to extract variety of geological information. Directional convolution filters were applied to the data for identifying linear features in particular directions and edge enhancement in the spatial domain. The analysis of the data indicate that many of flooded areas were associated with high potential risk zones for hydro-geological hazards such as wetlands, urban areas, floodplain scroll, meander bend, dendritic and sub-dendritic drainage patterns, which are located in flat topography regions. Numerous landslide points were located in rectangular drainage system that associated with topographic slope of metamorphic and Quaternary rock units. Geo-hazard mitigation programmes could be conducted in the landslide recurrence regions and flooded areas for reducing natural catastrophes leading to loss of financial investments and death in the Kelantan river basin.