92-9 Sliding into View: Mapping the 75,000+ Landslides of North Dakota for Real-World Use

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

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Abstract:

Landslides shape North Dakota's terrain in a much more impactful way than is commonly understood; even by residents and industry of the state. Approximately 60% of landslides occur in the western Badlands region; other areas of the state containing slope failures are glacial meltwater valleys and modern fluvial systems. The North Dakota Geological Survey (NDGS) has mapped landslides for over two decades; however, it didn’t start a statewide landslide mapping initiative until 2016. The reason for this is twofold, the expansion of infrastructure resulting from the Bakken oil play and the addition of LiDAR data statewide. Over the last 9 years, the state of North Dakota has gone from having a few dozen 1:24,000-scale landslide maps to the completion of mapping landslides statewide on a LiDAR base. By the end of 2025, the NDGS anticipates that it will achieve statewide landslide mapping utilizing LiDAR differencing techniques, a method using multiple LiDAR datasets to interpret where slope movement has occurred. With this, the NDGS has amassed a tremendous amount of data; how do we appropriately disseminate data products to different stakeholders? The end users range from ranchers/farmers, lawmakers, emergency planners, pipeline operators, geotechnical engineers, academia, and many others. With this variety of end users, each wishes to view data in different ways, whether it be a paper, a digital deliverable, or scale. The NDGS has diversified its deliverables to meet all needs: 1:24,000 scale landslide maps (digital and paper), 1:100,000-scale landslide maps (digital and paper), county-scale landslide maps (digital and paper), special city-scale maps/studies, shapefiles, and an interactive website viewer. Landslide mapping and data delivery are directly intertwined into the NDGS mission, which is to investigate the geology of North Dakota and provide public service to the people of North Dakota.

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

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-9904

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