VAWS: Sitka Landslide Risk Dashboard & Geohazards in Southeast Alaska

Speakers: Annette Patton (Sitka Sound Science Center), Jacyn Schmidt (Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska) and Ron Heintz (Sitka Sound Science Center)

Rain-induced landslides pose risk to lives and infrastructure across Southeast Alaska. After the fatal landslide in Sitka in August, 2015, the community convened experts to consider strategies to mitigate landslide risk. Over the last five years, the Sitka Sound Science Center has partnered with an inter-disciplinary, inter-agency team of local and technical experts to develop and disseminate a landslide risk dashboard. The dashboard uses NWS rainfall data to estimate current and forecasted landslide probability and is now available to the public at sitkalandslide.org. We are now beginning a project to expand monitoring for landslides and other natural hazards in six rural communities in Southeast Alaska.