The New York Times features a story today on the work of the U.S. Geological Survey researchers to understand landslide hazards. The report focuses on the creation of a multi-sensor remote monitoring station on post-wildfire burned slopes near Santa Barbara, California. While landslides are a significant natural hazard that takes thousands of human lives each year, little is known about how and where they occur, and there’s very little being done globally to predict and warn about these hazards.
This feature does a nice job detailing the work that’s being done, and the importance of a highly detailed global terrain model toward this effort. The feature discusses the benefits of LIDAR technology for a detailed basin model, and suggests that regular monitoring of areas burned by wildfire would greatly increase our understanding of landslides.
Read the full feature here.
