Abstract

Relationships Among Topography, Geology, Seismicity and Land Use, Nepal Himalaya
Track: Mining and Geosciences
Authors: Tank Ojha, Peter DeCelles

ESRI ArcMap software was applied to the Nepal Himalaya in order to understand the relationships among topography, geology, seismicity and land use. Development of a GIS-based multidisciplinary database involved scanning and manual digitization of topographical, geological and seismicity maps. From digitized topographical maps, digital terrain models, shaded relief, slope angle, slope direction and land use maps were developed and visualized in one data frame, providing a basis for several geospatial analyses. The results show that seismic epicenters beneath the Lesser Himalayan zone, high slope angles, and major geological structures are strongly associated. Human settlements and cultivated land polygons are concentrated on schist, phyllite and weathered granite zones of the Lesser Himalayan region. Although these rocks underlie topographically subdued regions, their structural anisotropy and mechanical weakness render them inappropriate for development. The database provides quantitative assessments of potentially hazardous hydropower projects, village locations, irrigation infrastructure, and road networks.