2026-07-29 ワシントン大学（UW）
This “heat map” of the United States shows the concentrations of residents most exposed to highly landslide-susceptible terrain. Photo: Acosta-Reyes et. al/Earth’s Future
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/07/29/landslide-exposure-database/
- https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026EF008622
米国における地滑りの危険性 Landslide Exposure in the United States
Daniel Acosta-Reyes, Joseph Wartman, Jessica Kaminsky
Earth’s Future Published: 29 July 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EF008622
Abstract
Landslide exposure in the United States has not been systematically quantified at the national scale, constraining targeted mitigation, policy development, and resource allocation. To address this gap, we developed the Landslide Exposure Database (LED), the first building-level national assessment integrating landslide susceptibility, building inventories, and socioeconomic data for 128 million structures across the United States. Although high-susceptibility terrain covers 19% of United States land area, the 6.5 million people residing in these areas represent just 2% of the national population, indicating that exposure reflects human geography as much as physical geography. Geographically, exposure concentrates in the Appalachian Highlands and Pacific Mountain System, which together account for 78% of the national high-exposure population; 62% of high-susceptibility buildings are in rural settings. Socioeconomic analysis identifies a consistent urban-rural divide: urban populations in high-susceptibility terrain show greater resilience than their regional baseline, while rural populations, concentrated in central Appalachia, show greater vulnerability where constrained topography limits settlement alternatives. Four distinct policy contexts emerge from the spatial clustering analysis, each requiring fundamentally different interventions.
