10-6 Rainfall Progression and Landslide Hotspots During Hurricane Helene: A Geospatial Analysis in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina

Session: Undergraduate and Graduate Geoscience Student Showcase (Posters)

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Rainfall-induced landslides pose serious threats to critical infrastructure and communities across the Southern Appalachian region, where steep terrain and complex rainfall patterns increase hazard risk. Hurricane Helene brought unprecedented rainfall, causing 2,216 documented landslides and numerous slope failures, revealing critical gaps in early warning capabilities. (Allstadt et al., 2025). This study combines geospatial and meteorological datasets to evaluate rainfall intensity, landslide distribution, and infrastructure impacts, guiding resource allocation, early warning systems, and hazard mitigation efforts across the region. Two geospatial approaches were used: spatial aggregation to identify true hotspots and a space-time cube to visualize rainfall progression from September 20-30, 2024.

Results revealed that mountainous counties experienced the highest concentration of rainfall-induced landslides, causing widespread damage to roads, rivers, and buildings with high-intensity rainfall (>12mm) strongly linked to slope failures. The 3D visualization revealed a clear temporal pattern: the heaviest rainfall occurred earlier in the southern locations and then progressed northeastwards over time. These findings emphasize the importance of geospatial analytics for understanding rainfall-induced landslide interactions and highlight priority areas for resource allocation, infrastructure reinforcement, emergency preparedness, and long-term climate resilience in mountainous communities.

Future work will integrate real-time machine learning models and soil moisture indicators to improve landslide forecasting accuracy across the region. Expanding this framework to include multi-hazard interactions and long-term climate projections will further strengthen early warning systems and regional resilience planning.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 1, 2026

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