Classification of soil- and bedrock-dominated landslides in British Columbia using segmentation of satellite imagery and DEM data

Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and digital elevation model (DEM) data were used in a segmentation and classification procedure to classify slide scars in the northern Cascade Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. The area was stratified into features that were likely candidates for landsliding and those that were not; shape criteria were applied that were used to identify objects as slides; and finally, rules based on shape, texture and neighbouring features were used to separate soil-dominated slides from bedrock-dominated slides, an important distinction in mass movement inventories and for applied and theoretical studies. Approximately 65% classification accuracy was obtained. Slopes experiencing multiple failures, which can create less distinct features on the ground, may have contributed to some of the error in classification.