Conference Papers

The term “landslide trigger” refers to an external stimulus, such as intense rainfall, rapid snowmelt, seismic shaking, volcanic eruption, stream/coastal erosion, or natural dam failure, which causes an immediate or near-immediate response in the form of landslide activity. In this paper, we discuss the types of landslides caused by these triggering processes and present a limited number...

No abstract available.

Recent scientific research suggests the Pacific Northwest could experience catastrophic earthquakes in the near future, both from distant and local sources, posing a significant threat to coastal communities. Damage could result from numerous earthquake-related hazards, such as severe ground shaking, soil liquefaction, landslides, land subsidence/uplift, and tsunami inundation. Because...

No abstract available.

Degelen mountain, located in EasternKazakhstan near the city of Semipalatinsk, was once the Soviets most active underground nuclear test site. Two hundred fifteen nuclear tests were conducted in 181 tunnels driven horizontally into its many ridges--almost twice the number of tests as at any other Soviet underground nuclear test site. It was also the site of the first Soviet underground...

This paper presents the use of GIS to assess human vulnerability due to cyclonic storm in India. Human vulnerability is conceptualized here as the exposure to hazard by external activity (e.g. cyclone) and coping capacity of the people to reduce the risk. The assessment looks at the potential exposure to people impacted by cyclonic activity in 32 Indian states and locates the vulnerable...

Sizeable areas of the Southern African Region experienced widespread flooding in 2000. Deployment of hydrologic models can help reduce the human and economic losses in the regions by providing improved monitoring and forecast information to guide relief activities. In this study, we describe a hydrologic model developed for wide-area flood risk monitoring for the Southern African region...

The National Elevation Dataset (NED) contains the best publicly available elevation data merged into a seamless dataset for the entire United States. In some cases these data contain unwanted artifacts, limiting the quality of standard hydrologic derivatives. The Elevation Derivatives for National Applications (EDNA) project is an interagency effort with the goal of developing a more

Multi-Resolution Land Characterization 2000 (MRLC 2000) is a second-generation federal consortium to create an updated pool of nation-wide Landsat 7 imagery, and derive a second-generation National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2000). This multi-layer, multisource database will include a suite of 30-meter resolution data that will serve as standardized ingredients for the production of land...

No abstract available.

Accurate, current, and cost-effective fire fuel data are required by management and fire science communities for use in reducing wildland fire hazards over large areas. In this paper we present results of applying decision-tree techniques to mapping vegetation parameters (such as vegetation types and canopy structure classification) required for fire fuel characterization. Specifically...

Although droughts are normal, recurring climate phenomena, they challenge our current ability to plan, predict, monitor, and provide relief to drought stricken areas. Because of the spatial and temporal variability of droughts, we need to improve the tools available to map and monitor them on many scales from local to national. A team of researchers from the US Geological Survey’s EROS...