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Article

Uncertainty-Aware and Explainable Run-Out Risk Prediction of Rainfall-Induced Landslides Using a CQR-EVT-XAI Framework

1
Nanxun Innovation Institute, Zhejiang University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Hangzhou 310018, China
2
Zhejiang Key Laboratory of River-Lake Water Network Health Restoration, Hangzhou 310018, China
3
Huzhou Taihu Water Conservancy Project Construction Management Center, Huzhou 313000, China
4
Changshan Rural Water Conservancy Management Center, Changshan 324400, China
5
School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Water 2026, 18(12), 1423; https://doi.org/10.3390/w18121423
Submission received: 6 May 2026 / Revised: 6 June 2026 / Accepted: 8 June 2026 / Published: 10 June 2026

Abstract

Reliable prediction of post-initiation run-out distance of rainfall-induced landslides is essential for hazard assessment, evacuation planning, and disaster-risk mitigation. However, most existing data-driven approaches formulate run-out prediction as a deterministic regression problem and therefore provide limited information on predictive uncertainty, rare long-runout events, and explainable decision support. To address these limitations, this study proposes CQR-EVT-XAI, a trustworthy AI framework that integrates Quantile LightGBM, Conformalized Quantile Regression (CQR), Extreme Value Theory (EVT), and Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) for uncertainty-aware and explainable landslide run-out risk prediction. Based on 10,158 rainfall-induced landslide samples, physics-informed features are constructed from elevation difference H, source area A, source volume V, and mean slope angle θ. The proposed framework generates calibrated prediction intervals, threshold-based exceedance probabilities, upper-tail risk indicators, and interpretable risk levels. The CQR-LightGBM median model achieves high point-prediction accuracy, with R2 = 0.939, RMSE = 18.03 m, and MAE = 6.55 m. Conformal calibration improves the empirical coverage of the nominal 90% and 95% prediction intervals from 0.813 to 0.903 and from 0.876 to 0.953, respectively. Tail-risk analysis shows that the upper prediction bound L^95 effectively identifies extreme long-runout events, achieving recall values of 0.974 and 0.900 for L > 300 m and L > 500 m, respectively. SHAP analysis reveals that elevation difference H, source volume V, and energy-related derived features dominate both median run-out prediction and upper-tail risk behavior, while slope-related variables mainly influence predictive uncertainty and exceedance-risk levels. These results demonstrate that the proposed CQR-EVT-XAI framework provides a practical workflow for calibrated uncertainty quantification, tail-risk identification, and explainable decision support in rainfall-induced landslide run-out risk assessment.
Keywords: rainfall-induced landslides; run-out distance; Quantile LightGBM; conformal quantile regression; extreme value theory; explainable artificial intelligence; SHAP; risk assessment rainfall-induced landslides; run-out distance; Quantile LightGBM; conformal quantile regression; extreme value theory; explainable artificial intelligence; SHAP; risk assessment

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Meng, Z.; Jin, F.; Lan, Y.; Zheng, Y.; Zeng, C.; Yu, L.; Liu, X.; Zhang, J. Uncertainty-Aware and Explainable Run-Out Risk Prediction of Rainfall-Induced Landslides Using a CQR-EVT-XAI Framework. Water 2026, 18, 1423. https://doi.org/10.3390/w18121423

AMA Style

Meng Z, Jin F, Lan Y, Zheng Y, Zeng C, Yu L, Liu X, Zhang J. Uncertainty-Aware and Explainable Run-Out Risk Prediction of Rainfall-Induced Landslides Using a CQR-EVT-XAI Framework. Water. 2026; 18(12):1423. https://doi.org/10.3390/w18121423

Chicago/Turabian Style

Meng, Zhenzhu, Faqing Jin, Yujia Lan, Yuhong Zheng, Cheng Zeng, Le Yu, Xian Liu, and Jinxin Zhang. 2026. "Uncertainty-Aware and Explainable Run-Out Risk Prediction of Rainfall-Induced Landslides Using a CQR-EVT-XAI Framework" Water 18, no. 12: 1423. https://doi.org/10.3390/w18121423

APA Style

Meng, Z., Jin, F., Lan, Y., Zheng, Y., Zeng, C., Yu, L., Liu, X., & Zhang, J. (2026). Uncertainty-Aware and Explainable Run-Out Risk Prediction of Rainfall-Induced Landslides Using a CQR-EVT-XAI Framework. Water, 18(12), 1423. https://doi.org/10.3390/w18121423

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