An Ecogeomorphological Approach to Land-Use Planning and Natural Hazard Risk Mitigation: A Literature Review

Abstract

The overarching topic of this article is land-use planning (LUP) for risk mitigation of natural hazards. In this context, landslides are one of the most destructive natural hazards, resulting in significant negative impacts on humans, ecosystems, and environments. This study presents a semi-systematic review of emerging ecogeomorphological principles for LUP to advance the mitigation of landslide risks. By integrating ecological and geomorphological systems, an ecogeomorphological approach offers a novel perspective for tackling landslide risk mitigation. This includes accounting for factors such as water flow accumulation, fractional vegetation cover, and soil erosion, using computational methods, applying artificial intelligence (AI) to process and predict risk, and integrating the internet of things (IoT) to real-time environmental data. We primarily explore the role of ecogeomorphology in fostering sustainable and risk-aware LUP, as well as how landslide research can be applied within LUP to strengthen broader management frameworks. The study reveals much evidence of ecogeomorphological factors in LUP, emphasising the integration of ecology, geomorphology, and hydrology for effective landslide mitigation. With the ongoing shift from traditional to emerging methodologies in risk management, our review addresses the existing research gap by proposing an up-to-date ecogeomorphological framework for practice.