Using remote sensing in the Tibetan part of national highway 317

The Tibetan part of National Highway 317 locates in Southeast of Tibet. Geological disasters such as landslides, debris flows and rock-falls happen frequently in this highway and bring about great damage in peoples’ lives and properties. How to make clear the geological status will be designed and maintained by disaster’s father of National Highway 317. In this paper, the Landsat ETM data, with the historical data and the investigation of field were used to study the landslides, debris flows and rockfalls of the Tibetan part of national highway 317 by image geometry correction, image enhancement and spatial analysis. The results shows there are 37 places of rock-falls, 177 places of debris flows and 69 places of landslides along the highway. The development and the characteristics of distribution of these geological disasters have been evaluated.