Landslide External Grants - Priorities
Risk Reduction Priorities
Every round of grants will include proposed Risk Reduction Priority Areas aimed at advancing landslide science and communication. These activities underlie the priorities of the National Landslide Preparedness Act by focusing on landslide hazard planning, coordination, education, outreach, mapping, and assessments. The Cooperative Landslide Hazard Mapping and Assessment Program priorities reflect the National Landslide Preparedness Act (https://www.usgs.gov/programs/landslide-hazards/science/national-landslide-preparedness-act) and the National Strategy for Landslide Loss Reduction (https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20221075), which support the mission of the USGS Landslide Hazards Program to reduce loss of lives and property from landslides and improve public safety and community resilience of the Nation.
The following are the Risk Reduction Priority Areas for FY2024 and can be found as Attachment A in the Program Announcement on grants.gov.
Attachment A. Priorities for FY2024
USGS Cooperative Landslide Hazard Mapping and Assessment Program
The USGS Cooperative Landslide Hazard Mapping and Assessment Program Priorities, presented here, reflect the National Landslide Preparedness Act (Attachment F) and the National Strategy for Landslide Loss Reduction (Attachment G), which support the mission of the USGS Landslide Hazards Program (LHP) to reduce loss of lives and property from landslides and improve public safety and community resilience of the Nation. Applicants should review the risk reduction priority areas described below. Proposed risk reduction activities aim to advance landslide science and communication that underlie the priorities of the National Landslide Preparedness Act by focusing on landslide hazard planning, coordination, education, outreach, mapping, and assessments. Proposed work could: (a) advance landslide hazard mapping and assessments, (b) improve landslide hazard planning and coordination, and (c) improve dissemination and effectiveness of landslide hazard information in mitigating losses. Proposed work could also be a combination of these objectives. Proposals focused on development of new products, such as hazard maps or educational materials, must demonstrate strong collaboration and coordination with intended users. Proposals focused on landslide hazard mitigation and risk reduction for traditionally underserved communities, and for populations whose vulnerability may be directly related to socioeconomic factors, are strongly encouraged.
Risk Reduction Priority Areas
The National Landslide Preparedness Act established the National Landslide Hazards Reduction Program to address four goals:
G1. Identify and understand landslide hazards and risks:
G2. Reduce losses from landslides;
G3. Protect communities at risk of landslide hazards; and
G4. Help improve communication and emergency preparedness, including by coordinating with communities and entities responsible for infrastructure that are at risk of landslide hazards.
To meet these four goals, the National Strategy for Landslide Loss Reduction (hereafter the “Strategy”) was written in coordination with a Federal interagency working group, identifying specific goals and strategic actions applicable to all levels of government. In consideration of the four goals above and the goals and strategic actions identified in the Strategy, the following risk reduction priority areas are recommended and described in detail below:
P1. Landslide hazard mapping and assessment
Proposals submitted to this grant program must address at least one of the Risk Reduction Priority Areas (P1, P2, P3). This document summarizes some of the relevant goals and strategic actions discussed above; the USGS invites those submitting a proposal to also review the National Landslide Preparedness Act and the Strategy (Attachments F and G, respectively) to improve their proposal alignment. The identified priority areas are not an exhaustive list of all potential proposal topics, nor intended to discourage submission of proposals to accomplish other important landslide risk reduction tasks. PIs are encouraged to reach out to USGS Project Officer to discuss potential topics.
Risk Reduction Priority Area P1: Landslide hazard mapping and assessments
Characterizing societal risk from landslides is an interdisciplinary endeavor that requires the data, collaboration, and coordination of local, Tribal, state, territorial, and federal agencies, as well as input from communities at-risk, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector. Key to the effectiveness of this work in reducing landslide losses is the development of better landslide hazard mapping and assessments. The hazard assessments can then be used to inform vulnerability and risk-assessment activities, which can in turn help identify where more-detailed hazard assessments and improved monitoring are needed to reduce the uncertainty of where, when, and why landslides could occur. These maps and assessments, combined with place-based sociological research, can also help focus outreach and communications about landslide risk reduction and preparedness.
Proposal topics may include:
- Landslide hazard mapping following an established protocol and using a lidar (3DEP) DEM base map. Hazard mapping may include landslide inventory, susceptibility, runout, exposure, and risk modeling for a region, municipality, or other defined area within the proposer’s jurisdictional responsibility.
- Landslide event database creation that describes spatial and temporal information related to storm events, earthquakes, or other regional landslide events. Data collected may include landslide timing, precise location, land use, damage estimates, losses, or other influences to improve the collective understanding of the impact that landslides have on people, the built environment, and ecosystem services.
- Assessments to improve our understanding of landslide behavior, including where landslides will initiate and where debris could travel after an event.
- An assessment of the influence of land use and land management practices on landslide likelihood and magnitude.
- Development of best practices and tools for landslide mapping in collaboration and coordination with state, Tribal, territorial, Federal, and local governments.
- Collecting and analyzing loss data from landslides.
- Or other topics relevant to this Risk Reduction Priority Area.
Note that for any mapping efforts that require topographic data, applicants are strongly encouraged to use lidar DEMs (e.g., data from the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP)) and to describe their usage in their proposals.
Risk Reduction Priority Area P2: Landslide planning and coordination
Reducing landslide losses requires strategies for improving preparedness and mitigation, and for increasing the Nation’s capacity to respond to and recover effectively from landslides when they affect communities, infrastructure, and other equities. Improving preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery requires planning, collaboration, and coordination across Federal agencies; state, Tribal, territorial, and local governments; academia; private industry; and nongovernmental and community organizations. Priority area 2 seeks to fund ways to improve planning and coordination among research, private industry, land management, and emergency management communities, as well as across various levels of government to ensure that the right information is in the right hands at the right time. Such coordination includes improving and standardizing linkages between landslide hazard science and operational entities responsible for providing watches and warnings, evacuation planning, and communication strategies. Formalizing roles and responsibilities for landslide response and research, as well as increasing coordination, will streamline landslide hazard responses and can result in improved short- and long-term outcomes to protect lives, property, infrastructure, and the environment.
Proposal topics may include:
- Development of landslide emergency and technical response protocols, roles and responsibilities, procedures, products, etc. to address local landslide emergencies. Partners may include emergency, land, and infrastructure managers, and others.
- Development, coordination, and facilitation of a landslide working group that shares best practices and lessons learned for effective landslide outreach, preparedness planning, education, land use practices, and other areas of landslide risk reduction and consisting of landslide experts and emergency, land, and transportation managers, planners, and others.
- Or other topics relevant to this Risk Reduction Priority Area.
Risk Reduction Priority Area P3: Landslide education, engagement, and outreach
The production of information on landslides and related hazards alone is not sufficient to reduce landslide losses and risk. Active engagement with the user community in the application and interpretation of landslide hazard information is needed for effective risk reduction. Ensuring stakeholder comprehension of landslide risk reduction products is crucial to reduce landslide losses. Early coordination of hazard and risk assessment activities with emergency managers, planners, public works, and other government officials is crucial for the development of effective mitigation strategies. Stakeholders buy-in is a critical step in information acceptance, adoption, and use. The use of hazard maps is reduced when: (a) the users don’t know the product exist; (b) users don’t understand the underlying data; and (c) the users were not provided the opportunity for input into the development of products. Active engagement with the user community provides space for dialogue on modifications to existing risk reduction products and development of new products that make work and results more relevant and applicable. The LHP supports opportunities for engaging the user community at all levels of government.
For the best available scientific information to be used, it must be delivered in a manner that is tailored to the scale and intent of the decisions and actions of its users in an accessible way. Effective loss reduction also requires education and training for at-risk people and communities, for land managers, and for other entities. Incorporating landslide hazard information into all-hazards planning efforts enables land managers and communities to: (a) address exposure of existing and future assets to landslide risk; (b) mitigate potential losses to the built environment, natural and cultural resources, and habitats that may be in these areas; and (c) respond and recover in ways to reduce the long-term effects of landslides. Preparing individuals that live and work in, or visit areas prone to landslides, will help make sure that they have the capacity to evacuate and avoid injuries and loss of life.
Proposal topics may include:
- Development of materials promoting landslide education, outreach, and engagement to the public.
- Provide collaborative engagement opportunities (workshops, trainings, etc.) for specialists and practitioners that facilitate addressing important challenges, such as: landslide hazard mitigation, response, preparedness, resilience, or similar.
- Advancing improved coordination of messages across multiple agencies by examining resources for education, crowdsourcing, and emergency management tools, for disseminating landslide information, landslide hazard products, and landslide emergency response.
- Engage user communities to assess the efficacy of existing landslide products and elicit their suggestions for improvements and new products.
- Develop new tools and products for increasing awareness of landslide hazards within the public and targeted user groups, such as emergency responders, public utilities, risk managers, decision makers, developers, and engineers.
- Develop approaches for providing landslide hazard information needed for risk assessments, and landslide mitigation and response planning to decision makers, emergency responders, and the public, particularly that cross local, state, Tribal, and territorial boundaries, and various levels of government.
- Develop landslide preparedness curricula and training modules for the public and for government officials including emergency, land, and infrastructure managers; planners; utilities; and b
- Or other topics relevant to this Risk Reduction Priority Area.
Proposal preparation guidance
Proposals submitted in response to this Program Announcement must indicate the Risk Reduction Priority Area(s) that the proposed activity addresses. Funding is only for risk reduction actives in the US, territories, and Tribal lands. Priority will be given to proposals that:
- Demonstrate strong collaboration with intended users. The inclusion of user input and engagement is critical to ensure a project aligns with stakeholder needs. For instance, collaboration with local planners and emergency managers for their buy-in and feedback should begin before starting a landslide hazard mapping project.
- Develop protocols for others to follow in the future. For example, if implementing a new landslide susceptibility model, include a protocol or publication with detailed methods for others to replicate.
- Encourage collaboration across state, Tribal, territorial, or other municipal boundaries.
- Target landslide hazard mitigation and risk reduction in underserved communities, and in populations whose vulnerability may be directly related to socioeconomic factors.
Projects that will not be considered:
- Long-term projects dependent on external funding, such a landslide monitoring or instrumentation.