P. Kayastha

• PhD
• Research Associate at Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Several methods and approaches have been proposed to assess landslide susceptibility. The likelihood of landslides occurring can be determined by applying statistical models to historical landslides, taking into account controlling factors. Popular methods for predicting the probability of landslides are weights-of-evidence and logistic regression....

Naïve Bayes classification is widely used for landslide susceptibility analysis, especially in the form of weights-of-evidence. However, when significant conditional dependence is present, the probabilities derived from weights-of-evidence are biased, resulting in an overestimation of landslide susceptibility. As a solution, this study presents a s...

Groundwater pollution threatens human health in the Gaza Strip as most of the residents use groundwater as drinking water in the Gaza Strip; hence, groundwater is one of the most precious natural resources in the Gaza Strip. The quantity and quality of available groundwater vary spatially and temporally and are influenced by multifaceted natural an...

The Gaza Strip is in a chronic state of water shortage and the coastal aquifer as the only freshwater source is increasingly depleted and polluted, especially by nitrate. Assessment of groundwater vulnerability to pollution is essential for adequate protection and management. In this study, the assessment of the aquifer vulnerability to contaminati...

Groundwater contamination is a major problem in the Gaza Strip. In this study we investigate the groundwater quality in the Dier al-Balah Governorate. Water samples were collected from 19 municipal wells in April 2009 and April 2014 and analyzed for physio-chemical parameters (pH, TDS, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Cl⁻, SO42–, HCO3⁻ and NO3⁻). The aim of th...

Kathmandu Metropolitan City, the capital city of Nepal, is prone to different types of disasters. Fire disaster is one of the most recurring in the city. Due to haphazard urbanization, poor fire services, few and old fire engines, insufficient skilled human resources combined with narrow road lanes, clustered households increase the fire vulnerabil...

Even though fewer people die as a result of fire than other natural disasters, such as earthquake, flood, landslide, etc., the average loss of property due to fire is high. Kathmandu Metropolitan City is becoming more vulnerable to fire due to haphazard urbanization and increase in population. To control problems due to fire, systematic studies are...

For assessing landslide susceptibility, the spatial distribution of landslides in the field is essential. The landslide inventory map is prepared on the basis of historical information of individual landslide events from different sources such as previously published reports, satellite imageries, aerial photographs and interview with local inhabita...

Selection of landfill sites for solid waste disposal is one of the biggest problems in urban areas because of impacts on public health. Based on the nature of the study area, appropriate landfill sites should be selected using multi-criteria evaluation techniques. There are three main landfill sites in the Gaza Strip, one in the Rafah Governorate,...

Landslides cause extensive loss of life and property in the Nepal Himalaya. Since the late 1980s, different mathematical models have been developed and applied for landslide susceptibility mapping and hazard assessment in Nepal. The main goal of this paper is to apply fuzzy logic to landslide susceptibility mapping in the Ghurmi-Dhad Khola area, Ea...

Landslide problems are abundant in the mountainous areas of Nepal due to a unique combination of adverse geological conditions, abundant rainfall and anthropogenic factors, which leads to enormous loss of life and property every year. To control such problems, systematic studies of landslides are necessary, including inventory mapping and risk asse...

The goal of this paper is to evaluate and compare the consistency of GIS-based heuristic and bivariate landslide susceptibility mapping techniques in the Himalayan region, taking the Kulekhani watershed of central Nepal as an example. For this purpose, a heuristic and two statistical bivariate landslide susceptibility mapping methods are applied, a...

Landslide is one of the major natural disasters which cause extensive loss of life and property. During the last three decades, different researchers have developed different methodologies to prepare landslide susceptibility mapping and hazard assessment in the world. The main goal of this paper is to apply a fuzzy logic approach to landslide susce...

GIS-based landslide susceptibility maps for the Kankai watershed in east Nepal are developed using the frequency ratio method and the multiple linear regression technique. The maps are derived from comparing observed landslides with possible causative factors: slope angle, slope aspect, slope curvature, relative relief, distance from drainage, land...

Mountainous areas in Nepal are prone to landslides, resulting in an enormous loss of life and property every year. As a first step towards mitigating or controlling such problems, it is necessary to prepare landslide susceptibility maps. Various methodologies have been proposed for landslide susceptibility mapping. This study applies the weight of...

Landslides are one of the major natural disasters that occur in the Himalayan range with recurring frequency, causing enormous loss of life and property every year. Preparation of landslide inventory maps and landslide susceptibility zonation maps are the important tasks to be taken into account initially for safe mitigation measures. The present p...