Comparative assessment of landslide susceptibility in Fugu town using machine learning models at multiple grid resolutions

Landslides pose serious threats to life and infrastructure in the loess hilly regions of northern China, where the complex interaction between topography, lithology, and human activities makes susceptibility prediction challenging. Although numerous studies have explored the effects of spatial resolution and machine learning models on landslide susceptibility assessment, their conclusions remain inconsistent, and few have quantitatively examined the interaction between these two factors. To address this gap, this study conducted a multi-scale comparative analysis of landslide susceptibility in Fugu Town, Shaanxi Province (area: 328.73 km2) using Random Forest (RF) and XGBoost (XGB) models under 15 m, 30 m, and 60 m grid resolutions. The objectives were to determine the optimal model-resolution combination and to evaluate the influence of spatial scale on model performance. Results indicate that grid resolution significantly affects prediction accuracy and spatial patterns of susceptibility zones. The XGBoost model at 15 m resolution achieved the best performance (AUC = 0.980), with high- and very-high-susceptibility zones mainly distributed in the canyon-hill terrains of the northern and central-western regions. These findings provide methodological insights for selecting appropriate model-resolution combinations and practical references for landslide risk management in the loess areas of northern Shaanxi.