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Full catalog/Global_Landslide_Exposure_Maps
Global_Landslide_Exposure_Maps·v1.0·dataset

Where rain-triggered landslides threaten people

IMERG and LHASA Global Landslide Exposure Maps 1.0
land NASA GES_DISC Level 4 active
In plain English

What it measures. Maps showing where rain-triggered landslides put people and infrastructure at risk, as a 16-year average. They estimate how many people, roads, hospitals, schools, fuel stations, and power facilities are exposed to landslide hazard.

How it's made. Produced by NASA's LHASA model, which combines satellite rainfall estimates with a landslide-susceptibility map (based on slope, geology, roads, faults, and forest loss) to flag where landslides are likely, averaged over 2001-2016.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for disaster planning and situational awareness, helping identify communities and critical infrastructure most exposed to rain-driven landslides.

What's measured

HUMAN DIMENSIONS › NATURAL HAZARDS › LANDSLIDES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2001-01-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byMODELS (NOT APPLICABLE)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-180, -60, 180, 72
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The Landslide Hazard Assessment for Situational Awareness (LHASA) model identifies locations with high potential for landslide occurrence at a daily temporal resolution. LHASA combines satellite‐based precipitation estimates with a landslide susceptibility map derived from information on slope, geology, road networks, fault zones, and forest loss. When rainfall is considered to be extreme and susceptibility values are moderate to very high, a “nowcast” is issued to indicate the times and places where landslides are more probable. This archive contains GeoTIFF Rasters that are a 16-year average (beginning of 2001 - end of 2016). The spatial coverage is from 72°N to 60°S latitude, and 180°W to 180°E longitude, based on IMERG Ver06B from the aforementioned time interval. The provided global maps of exposure to landslide hazards, are at a 30x30 arc-second resolution. These maps show the estimated exposure of population, roads, and critical infrastructure (hospitals/clinics, schools, fuel stations, power stations & distribution facilities) to landslide hazard, as modeled by the NASA LHASA model. The data collection consists of eight files, covering the aforementioned spatial and temporal ranges, totaling approximately 20.3 GB (~2.5 GB each): (1): Landslide hazard (annual average; Units: Nowcasts.yr-1) (2): Landslide hazard (annual standard deviation; Units: Nowcasts.yr-1) (3): Population exposure (annual average; Units: Person-Nowcasts. yr-1. km-2) (4): Population exposure (annual standard deviation; Units: Person-Nowcasts. yr-1. km-2) (5): Road exposure (annual average; Units: Nowcasts.km.yr-1.km-2) (6): Road exposure (annual standard deviation; Units: Nowcasts.km.yr-1.km-2) (7): Critical infrastructure exposure (annual average; Units: Nowcasts.element.yr-1.km-2) (8): Critical infrastructure exposure (annual standard deviation; Units: Nowcasts.element.yr-1.km-2)

Get the data

global_landslide_exposure_maps_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="Global_Landslide_Exposure_Maps",
    version="1.0",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from GES_DISC
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.