Event-Based Landslide Inventory Mapping: Comparisons with the Past and Advancing Hazard Assessment in the Appalachian Plateau, Kentucky, USA

July 2022 storms in eastern Kentucky produced widespread flooding and landslides. Initial field and remote-sensing based reconnaissance mapping by the Kentucky Geological Survey identified more than 1,000 landslides from the event. This proposal seeks funding for studying the initial identified landslides, as well as using cutting edge, rapid, lidar-derived elevation differencing to detect and characterize landslide activity not previously detected after the storm event. The objective of this project is to contextualize landslide hazards in Eastern Kentucky from major events like the July 2022 event and establish forward looking estimates of landslide hazards in the region given expected climatic scenarios. We will use available lidar and lidar- differencing results to explore the impacts of anthropogenic hillslope modification and landslide activity, event-specific landslide size and distribution parameters, and potential future climate impacts to landslide hazards in eastern Kentucky.