Track I Center Catalyst: Collaborative Center for Landslides and Ground Failure Geohazards

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Landslides are a common hazard in mountainous terrain worldwide, and they occur throughout all US states and territories. In the US alone, annual landslide-related losses have been estimated to be more than $2B with the loss of 25 to 50 lives. Worldwide landslides claimed more than 18,000 lives between 1998 and 2017. This Track I proposal will use Puerto Rico as a living laboratory to study landslides, related ground failure hazards, and their community impact. This proposal will develop a primary hub for a national center proposal in Track 2 as a collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT), the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM), and the University of Colorado Boulder (CUB). This primary hub will serve as a model for integrating research aims with community engagement, student education, and workforce development. Goals include the inclusion of historically underrepresented groups in cutting-edge scientific research, communicating landslide science to communities vulnerable to mass wasting, and preparing a new generation of subject matter experts and leaders. A “Landslide Ready” program for emergency managers and community leaders will underpin efforts to communicate landslide preparedness and hazard response best practices in a meaningful way.The Puerto Rico hub, and ultimately a Collaborative Center for Landslides and Ground Failure Geohazards, will focus research on the fundamental causes and triggering mechanisms of landslides as well as developing an understanding of hazards cascading from ground failure. The hub will provide a platform for fieldwork and modeling tools tailored specifically for landslide science. Scientific questions to be addressed by the national center include: Can we predict landslide triggering in complicated terrain? What are the interactions between rainfall, topography, and vegetation and landslide risk? Do landslides promote the release or capture of carbon? Can we forecast the post-event riverine flux of coarse sediment and its impacts on future flood hazards? Track I science objectives include developing the cyber-infrastructure for integrating data and models and formulating a landslide geohazard forecasting system for Puerto Rico.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.