Reference · built on requestCommons signalEarth, seismic & volcanic

USGS Landslide Hazards Program

US landslide inventory, susceptibility map, and postfire debris-flow hazard assessments from the USGS Landslide Hazards Program.

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About

The USGS Landslide Hazards Program publishes the U.S. Landslide Inventory, a continental-scale susceptibility map, and postfire debris-flow hazard assessments for select fires in the western United States. The inventory compiles historical landslide records from many sources into one standard format, with a confidence rating for each landslide's location and extent. Assessments estimate debris-flow likelihood, volume, and combined hazard for burned watersheds under a range of rainfall scenarios.

Through Fibric you read the inventory and each new assessment as it is released, match them to your sites and routes, and hand the result to an operator that proposes holds, reroutes, or notices for your approval.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from USGS Landslide Hazards Program and what it could propose, based on the publisher's published interfaces. Fibric builds it under a managed deployment when you request it; selecting it here installs nothing.

Inputs

  • U.S. Landslide Inventory records with location, a confidence rating, and links to the original source where available
  • The landslide susceptibility map for the continental U.S., Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico
  • Postfire debris-flow hazard assessments: likelihood, volume, and combined hazard per burned watershed and rainfall scenario
  • The PWFDF feature service and PWFDF API for programmatic access to current assessments
  • Assessment archives on ScienceBase for 2013 to 2023, for 2024, and for 2025 onward
  • The Earthquake-Triggered Ground-Failure web map for North and South America

Proposed actions

Read-only. This feed informs operators; it changes nothing.

Proposed actions are target capabilities. Every action runs propose-first and needs a validated deployment and the appropriate permissions.

What you can build

  • Hold shipments into a burn-scar basin

    When a new debris-flow assessment names a high-hazard basin on your delivery routes, Weather Hold proposes pausing outbound orders to those addresses until the storm passes.

    With Weather Hold

  • Reroute field crews around assessed basins

    Field Dispatch reads assessment polygons against tomorrow's job sites and proposes alternate routes or reschedules for basins flagged at high combined hazard.

    With Field Dispatch

  • Prepare properties on the susceptibility map

    Storm Prep intersects the inventory and susceptibility map with your property list and proposes a pre-storm checklist for sites in higher-susceptibility areas.

    With Storm Prep

Requirements

  • Site, route, or asset coordinates to intersect with inventory polygons and assessment basins
  • A GIS-capable reader for ScienceBase downloads and the ArcGIS feature service
  • Awareness that assessments exist only for the fires the USGS chooses to assess
Authentication
No key or account. The inventory, the ScienceBase archives, the PWFDF API, and the feature service are open USGS resources.

Limits

  • Postfire assessments cover select fires in the western United States, not every burn
  • The inventory was created in 2019 and updated in 2022; updates arrive as new landslide data becomes available, not on a schedule
  • Other U.S. territories are excluded for lack of high-resolution elevation and occurrence data
  • Assessments before 2025 lack a formal data specification, so fields vary across archives

Access and pricing

Reference listing. Public feed access is separate from Fibric integration. If you request this feed, your quote covers the build, usage, and support.

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Questions and answers

Is there an API for postfire debris-flow assessments?
Yes. The USGS publishes a PWFDF API with command line and Python interfaces, and a PWFDF feature service on earthquake.usgs.gov for GIS applications. Assessments from 2025 onward follow the Hazard Assessment Data Specification; older archives on ScienceBase do not.
How often is the U.S. Landslide Inventory updated?
The USGS states the database was first created in 2019, updated in 2022, and will continue to be updated as new landslide data becomes available. There is no fixed release cadence. Contributions go to the program's inventory mailbox.
What does the landslide data cost and how is it licensed?
Nothing. The USGS marks these products Public Domain. No key or registration is required for the inventory, the ScienceBase archives, the PWFDF API, or the feature service.
Ask about USGS Landslide Hazards Program

Ask about the capabilities and requirements in this listing.

For project-specific requirements, contact Fibric.

This Commons signal listing is developed, published, and supported by Fibric. It reads public data published by USGS Landslide Hazards Program (usgs.gov, sciencebase.gov). Upstream agencies and projects are the property of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Fibric and do not sponsor or endorse this listing. Trademark policy