92-4 The Kentucky Geological Survey Landslide Inventory Database: Updates and Improvements

Session: Landslide Inventory Mapping and Next Steps: Assessing Susceptibility, Hazard Models, Risk, and Policy

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The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) has maintained a landslide inventory database since 2011. In that time, the database has grown in terms of documented landslides, data types, landslide attributes, and utility, and now includes two inventories representing slides triggered by large storms. KGS has leveraged inventory data to complete several projects, including landslide susceptibility and risk assessments. With these expansions, improvements, and new applications, we have made adjustments and edits to the initial database structure and its attributes. Large databases such as those used to track the volume of data associated with landslides, often with multiple data sources and mappers, can quickly become unwieldy and lose efficiency or efficacy without dedicated management.  

Our recent goal was to improve and maintain the landslide inventory database to ensure clear communication of the hazard, improve data quality, and support related landslide research. To achieve this goal, we reduced general attribute redundancy, increased consistency across fields, and standardized attributes within fields. These changes include the addition of the new field Movement_Type, standardization to a common Y/N binary across multiple fields, and realignment to specific attribute options within fields where possible. In addition, we modified the attributes for different point, line, and polygon layers that make up the inventory to be consistent across layers. These changes were motivated by our desire for both parity with other landslide inventory methods and increased consistency within the KGS inventory. This work helps to facilitate more effective query and display of data by both KGS researchers and external end users. 

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-7200

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