Understanding the occurrences of fault and landslide in the region of West-Cameroon using remote sensing and GIS techniques

• Published in: Natural hazards (Dordrecht) Vol. 109; no. 2; pp. 1589 - 1602
• Main Authors: Aretouyap, Zakari, Kemgang, Franck Eitel G, Domra, Janvier K, Bisso, Dieudonne, Njandjock, Philippe N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.11.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Civil Engineering; Cliffs; Composition; Digital Elevation Models; Digital mapping; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Elevation; Environmental Management; Fault detection; Fault lines; Faults; Field study; Fieldwork; Geographical information systems; Geological structures; Geomorphology; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Highways; Hydrogeology; Joints (timber); Landslides; Natural Hazards; Original Paper; Photogrammetry; Remote sensing; Remote sensing techniques; Rivers; Roads & highways; Rock falls; Rocks; Sensing techniques; Soil moisture; Terraces; Valleys; Cameroon; Open fault; Cameroon; Landslide; Remote sensing
• ISSN: 0921-030X; 1573-0840
• DOI: 10.1007/s11069-021-04890-8

Remote sensing was used to visualize the West region with the purpose of investigating recent natural hazards observed in this area. Various approaches used based on multi-spectral information such as PCA, band compositions, NDVI, and texture analysis are used to investigate landslide and new faults in the region of West Cameroon. The combination of remote sensing techniques with fieldwork and photogrammetry has been probed again and helped to detect three (03) new faults and to characterise the recently assumed landslide as a rock fall characterised by an accumulation of fresh rock deposits downwards, from the edge to the valley. In this study, we extracted in this region all linear and curvilinear edges resulted from geomorphological features, geological structures, rock composition, vegetal tonal contrasts, soil moisture, and human activities. These features are terraces, linear valleys and cliffs, faults, joints, and other line weaknesses, tracks, buildings, roads and rivers. They are overlain on rivers, highways and digital elevation model maps for preliminary validation. Then, a post-processing fieldwork has been conducted to avoid any confusion with faults. The digital elevation model and the derived slope maps enabled fracturing to be discerned. Existing known faults have also been identified in this study.