THE KENTUCKY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY LANDSLIDE PROGRAM: FROM INVENTORY TO TARGETED RESEARCH

The Kentucky Geological Survey continues to expand and maintain a statewide landslide inventory database and associated landslide interactive map service. The interactive, customizable map assists users in landslide investigations and planning for potential hazards by showing known landslide locations in a geologic and geomorphic context.

The landslide inventory has facilitated efforts to target specific landslides and research landslide types, processes, and conditions that lead to failure. Research includes evaluation of causes and triggers, hydrologic monitoring, landslide movement, and using electrical resistivity as a tool for landslide investigation. The research sites represent different slide types, geologic settings, and slope histories. To date, three landslides have been instrumented with volumetric water-content sensors, water-potential sensors, and rain gages. Wooden stakes with survey reflectors have been installed in order to monitor slope movement using a total station. Surface electrical-resistivity arrays will be run numerous times over the monitoring period to evaluate landslide structure, lithologic characteristics, and hydrologic conditions over time.

Effective research and efforts to communicate results to stakeholders is necessary in order to move toward proactive solutions and reduce loss and avoid damages, instead of retroactively focusing on outcomes of events that have already caused damage. The exact costs for mitigating landslides in Kentucky are not known, but they are significant. Data collected since 2000 from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and Kentucky Emergency Management suggest mitigation costs exceed $10 million per year. For 2015 to date, Kentucky has experienced above average rainfall, causing hundreds of landslides, several damaging. As estimates of rainfall intensity and longevity of precipitation events are expected to increase, it is critical to continue to evaluate landslide activity and improve efforts to communicate research results.