19-28. Towards a National landslide susceptibility map of the United States

Landslides occur in every state and U.S. territory and pose a significant threat to people, buildings, essential facilities and infrastructure, and natural and cultural resources. The USGS Landslide Hazards Program is dedicated to improving scientific understanding of landslides, while also developing tools that support external partners in their efforts to reduce losses. Similarly, the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program is developing tools for rapid assessment of co-seismic ground failure, including landslides. Realistic temporal and spatial assessment of landslide susceptibility provides critical information for land-use managers, emergency managers, and infrastructure planners, as they develop mitigation plans and policies for reducing potential losses, as well as preparing and educating at-risk communities in landslide-prone areas. 

Individual statewide susceptibility products have been developed in a few landslide-prone regions (e.g., Burns et al., 2016), but a consistent understanding of landslide susceptibility across the entire U.S. remains poorly constrained. Previous attempts to systemically characterize landslide potential across the U.S. include: (1) an outdated 1:7,500,000 scale map of the conterminous U.S. based on subjective interpretation of 1970’s geologic mapping (Radbruch-Hall et al., 1982), (2) a binary hazard classification with a 1-km grid cell for the conterminous U.S. based on a topographic analysis of 30-m-resolution elevation data (Godt et al., 2012), (3) a similarly coarse-resolution global-scale tool used for situational awareness of rainfall-triggered landslides (Kirschbaum and Stanley, 2018), and (4) a simple event-specific near-real-time earthquake-triggered landslide model. Analysis of a newly compiled USGS landslide inventory database revealed that the vast majority of reported and mapped landslides within the U.S. occurred within areas that were previously reported as moderate or even low susceptibility (Mirus et al., 2020). This underestimation of landslide susceptibility is concerning, and it highlights the need for improved landslide hazard mapping, especially in moderately hilly terrain.  

The primary objective of the research opportunity is to develop a uniform and accurate approach for assessing, mapping, and communicating landslide susceptibility that can be implemented consistently across the entire U.S., including Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and U.S. territories. The successful candidate would leverage existing databases, such as the U.S. landslide inventory compilation (Mirus et al., 2020), the global earthquake-triggered ground failure catalogue (Schmitt et al., 2018) and high-resolution digital elevation, climate, vegetation, rainfall, hydrology, geologic or soils information, and probabilistic seismic hazard maps as model inputs. Use of these datasets and advanced USGS computing resources will enable evaluation of regional- and catchment-scale conditions for significant earthquakes or extreme rainfall events. This research opportunity could explore any number of established or emerging approaches for susceptibility modeling including statistical or empirical methods, physically based deterministic modeling, or machine learning algorithms and artificial neural network analysis.   

Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the Research Advisor(s) early in the application process to discuss project ideas. 

References:  

Burns WJ, Mickelson KA, Madin IP (2016) Landslide Susceptibility Overview Map of Oregon: Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries Open File Report, O-16-02, 48 p. https://www.oregongeology.org/pubs/ofr/p-O-16-02.htm 

Godt JW, Coe JA, Baum RL, Highland LM, Keaton JR, Roth RJ (2012) Prototype landslide hazard maps of the conterminous United States. In: Eberhardt E, Froese C, Turner AK, Leroueil S (eds) Landslides and engineered slopes: protecting society through improved understanding. Taylor & Francis Group, London, pp 245–250. 

Kirschbaum D, Stanley T (2018) Satellite‐based assessment of rainfall‐triggered landslide hazard for situational awareness: Earth's Future. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000715  

Mirus BB, Jones E, Baum RL, Godt JW, Schmitt R, Burns WJ, Crawford M, Kirschbaum D, Lancaster J, Lindsey KO, McCoy K, Slaughter S, Stanley, T (2020) Landslides across the United States: Occurrence, Susceptibility, and Data Limitations: Landslides. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01424-4 

Radbruch-Hall DH, Colton RB, Davies WE, Lucchitta I, Skipp BA, Varnes DJ (1982) Landslide overview map of the conterminous United States: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 1183. https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/p1183/pp1183.html  

Schmitt RG, Tanyas H, Nowicki Jessee MA, Jing Z, Biegel KM, Allstadt KE, Jibson RW, Thompson EM, van Westen CJ, Sato HP, Wald DJ, Godt JW, Gorum T, Chong X, Rathje EM, Knudsen KL (2017) An Open Repository of Earthquake-Triggered Ground-Failure Inventories (ver 2.0, December 2018), U.S. Geological Survey data release. https://doi.org/10.5066/F7H70DB4  

Proposed Duty Station: Golden, CO 

Areas of PhD:  Geology, geography, geomorphology, hydrology, data science, machine learning, civil engineering, computer science, mathematics, soil science, or related field (candidates holding a Ph.D. in other disciplines, but with extensive knowledge and skills relevant to the Research Opportunity may be considered).

Qualifications: Applicants must meet one of the following qualifications: Research Geologist, Research Geographer, Research Civil Engineer, Research Geophysicist, Research Physical Scientist, Research Hydrologist, Research Computer Scientist, Research Mathematician, Research Soil Scientist.  

(This type of research is performed by those who have backgrounds for the occupations stated above.  However, other titles may be applicable depending on the applicant's background, education, and research proposal. The final classification of the position will be made by the Human Resources specialist.) 

Human Resources Office Contact: Joseline Martinez Lopez, 303-236-9559, jmartinezlopez@usgs.gov 

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