Enhancing Decision Support System by Prioritizing Critical Areas in Landslide Disaster Management of Kinnaur District, Himachal Pradesh

The Himalayan region is highly susceptible to landslides and has witnessed several fatal incidents in recent years. Implementing a priority-based ranking system for landslide management is essential to help decision-makers identify the most vulnerable or high-risk zones. This approach ensures that limited resources—such as funding, manpower, and technical expertise—are allocated efficiently. The prioritization process involves systematically evaluating and categorizing areas or projects based on the severity of risk, potential impact, and urgency of required interventions. By focusing on mitigation efforts, emergency preparedness, and infrastructure enhancement in the most at-risk zones, authorities can significantly reduce the likelihood of landslide-related disasters and strengthen community resilience. In this study, we propose a priority score ranking system for the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, based on the assessment of exposure levels of individual elements at risk, both in terms of landslide initiation and runout paths, along with their strategic importance. The resulting individual priority score maps and the integrated priority map are intended to support decision-making for a landslide early warning system and the effective allocation of resources for disaster risk reduction. Our findings indicate that approximately 5% area of the Kinnaur district should be prioritized for resource allocation to implement targeted mitigation strategies. This framework can be readily adapted on a regional scale for use in other landslide-prone regions to support focused planning and execution of disaster risk reduction initiatives.