Building a landslide hazard indicator with machine learning and land surface models

Environmental Modelling & Software
By: , and 

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Abstract

The U.S. Pacific Northwest has a history of frequent and occasionally deadly landslides caused by various factors. Using a multivariate, machine-learning approach, we combined a Pacific Northwest Landslide Inventory with a 36-year gridded hydrologic dataset from the National Climate Assessment – Land Data Assimilation System to produce a landslide hazard indicator (LHI) on a daily 0.125-degree grid. The LHI identified where and when landslides were most probable over the years 1979–2016, addressing issues of bias and completeness that muddy the analysis of multi-decadal landslide inventories. The seasonal cycle was strong along the west coast, with a peak in the winter, but weaker east of the Cascade Range. This lagging indicator can fill gaps in the observational record to identify the seasonality of landslides over a large spatiotemporal domain and show how landslide hazard has responded to a changing climate.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Building a landslide hazard indicator with machine learning and land surface models
Series title Environmental Modelling & Software
DOI 10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104692
Volume 129
Year Published 2020
Language English
Publisher Elsevier
Contributing office(s) Oregon Water Science Center
Description 104692, 15 p.
Country United States
State Oregon, Washington
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