Scientific Colloquium
March 28, 2014
DALIA
KIRSCHBAUM
GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
"Finding the Slippery Slope:
Detecting Landslides from Space"
Rainfall-triggered landslides
occur in nearly every country around the world, produce billions
of dollars of damages and cause thousands of fatalities, and
that is just in one year. Understanding and modeling the
dynamics of rainfall-triggered landslides is a challenging task
due to precipitation variability and the complexity of
approximating landslide failure mechanisms over broader scales.
Satellite data provides a unique perspective to estimate
landslide triggering, but the accuracy of the modeling is highly
reliant on the scale and methodology at which the evaluation is
considered. This presentation outlines several different
on-going efforts to model landslide activity at different
spatial and temporal scales using deterministic, statistical and
empirical methodologies. From a single hillslope in Washington
to the entire region of Central America to a global landslide
cataloging effort, this presentation will explore the trials,
tribulations, and triumphs of estimating landslide hazards over
various climatologic, topographic and political settings.
About the speaker:
Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum is a Research Physical Scientist in the
Hydrological Sciences Lab at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, MD. Her research interests center on
rainfall-triggered landslide modeling, focusing on applying
remotely sensed surface and precipitation information to
landslide hazard models at multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Her current research focuses on advancing a regional landslide
hazard and forecasting system with more quantitative and
deterministic models to improve landslide hazard assessment. Dr.
Kirschbaum is also the Applications Scientist for the Global
Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission, which was launched
February 27th, 2014. As GPM Applications Scientist, she provides
scientific support for applications research and outreach. Dr.
Kirschbaum received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Earth and
Environmental Sciences from Columbia University with a focus in
Natural Hazards and Remote Sensing. She received her A.B. in
Geosciences from Princeton University.