FY25 vermont geological survey landslide hazard mapping and assessmentproject period: 07 01 2025 through 06 30 2026THE vermont geological survey (VGS) is proposing to fund a comprehensive…

FY25 vermont geological survey landslide hazard mapping and assessmentproject period: 07 01 2025 through 06 30 2026THE vermont geological survey (VGS) is proposing to fund a comprehensive landslideinventory for 10 vermont counties under guidance criteria 1. The objective of this work is twofold:first, in vermont, an inventory of past landslides currently serves as the greatest asset inpredicting future landslide events. This has been recognized in the four counties withcomprehensive lidar-based inventories, and a complete inventory has been requested bymultiple end-users. Second: vermont has a long-term goal of building a statewide landslidesusceptibility model, and the proposed work will support a comprehensive statewide inventorythat will be necessary for calibrating and validating this model. The inventory will be built by identifying landslides from two primary data sources: digitalelevation models (DEM) derived from light detection and ranging (lidar) data, and aerialorthophotographs available across several years for vermont. Lidar is an aircraft-based datacollection method used to produce high-resolution elevation information with a broad range ofland surface analysis capabilities. The 10 counties of vermont will be divided into 2-KM gridsand then analyzed simultaneously in the lidar dems and the orthoimagery in a geographicinformation system (GIS). 25% of newly identified landslides will additionally be delineatedfrom point features to polygons to characterize landscape parameters at failure zones. Anestablished set of attributes will be collected for each landslide location and added to a gisdatabase. The deliverables associated with the proposed landslide inventory primarily include a gisdatabase of all mapped landslides as well as a final technical report outlining the methods andresults of this effort. These will be available on the website along with an interactive webmapwhich will allow data users to visualize newly mapped landslide locations identified from theinventory mapping effort. By providing these materials on the VGS website, the recipient intends tobenefit many end users including: vermont emergency management, vermonts regionalplanning commissions, the geotechnical consulting community, academic researchers, theunited states geological survey, and the public at large.a landslide expert from norwich university will be involved in mapping landslides in twocounties alongside VGS staff, including field verification, in the first 3 months of this agreement.additionally, a student intern will support inventorying 5 counties. This framework presents asignificant opportunity for workforce development, with training and knowledge transfer firstfrom a landslide expert to the VGS, and then from the VGS to a student intern.