Refined micro-scale geological disaster susceptibility evaluation based on UAV tilt photography data and weighted certainty factor method in Qingchuan County

Abstract Frequent geological disasters based on a range of precipitating factors occur in areas with fragile geological environments, and the traditional artificial geological disaster survey method is often too dangerous to be carried out effectively. In order to achieve more efficient influence factors and refine the evaluation of micro-scale geological disaster susceptibility, this paper used UAV tilt photography and image processing technology to construct a 3D model of the geological environment. Geological disaster influence factors were extracted from a typical geological disaster area within Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province. A weighted certainty factor method and information model method were used to evaluate geological disaster susceptibility. The geological disaster susceptibility index of different characteristic variables was calculated using a certainty factors method, while factor weight was determined using an information model. The geological environment “potentiality parameter” for each grid unit, taken as the basis of geological disaster susceptibility zoning in the area, was calculated by coupling factor weight and CF value. Finally, the ROC test method was used to verify evaluation results of geological hazard susceptibility. This study found that: (1) UAV tilt photogrammetry data can be an effective method for geological disaster susceptibility evaluation. (2) The areas under the ROC curve calculated using the two methods were 66.20% and 81.71%, respectively, showing that accuracy of the weighted certainty factor method was higher than that of the information method.