Kalka Shimla Railways – A UNESCO World Heritage Site Exposed to Landslides

A significant portion of the Kalka Shimla Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its steep ascent and historical significance, is exposed to high or very high susceptibility to landslides. The study reveals that 36.9% of the railway's total length faces severe landslide risk, with 96.55% of past landslides concentrated in just 5.62% of the area classified as 'Very High' susceptibility. This finding underscores the urgent need for targeted protection measures to preserve this heritage site. The research employed a Random Forest classifier trained on 1,484 historical landslide locations, validated with high accuracy (90.6% during training and 91.7% during testing) and robust AUROC values of 0.97. Bayesian hyperparameter optimization ensured the model's precision, while Jenks optimization further refined susceptibility zonation mapping.

Sharma, A., & Sandhu, H. A. S. (2023). Kalka Shimla Railways – A UNESCO World Heritage Site Exposed to Landslides. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-331