Researchers awarded $15 million NSF grant to transform the science of natural hazards

A multi-institutional team of researchers has been awarded a $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation to launch the Center for Land Surface Hazards (CLaSH).

The new center aims to advance research on the fundamental science processes that cause landslides, river erosion, debris flows and flooding. These cascading land surface hazards have been known to follow hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes and other natural disasters, but now researchers want to better understand the connection between these events.

UC Berkeley civil engineering professor Dimitrios Zekkos is co-principal investigator of the project. Zekkos, a geotechnical engineer, hopes to gain novel insights by using state-of-the-art technologies to develop new scientific frameworks and forecasting tools.

“Recent technological advances in remote sensing, robots and sensors provide an unprecedented opportunity to monitor the geologic processes in a way that was completely impossible only a few years ago,” he said. “These advances, paired with new computational tools, such as artificial intelligence, and regional geologic process simulations, provide a truly unprecedented opportunity to advance our scientific understanding of how geologic processes are coupled and lead to geohazard cascades.”

In addition to research, CLaSH plans to focus on programs to help grow a workforce of experts in land surface hazards and foster community engagement.

Housed at the University of Michigan, the center includes 17 funded partner organizations, including universities, government organizations and tribal partners, as well as dozens of other U.S. and international collaborations with a variety of academic, government, non-profit and business organizations.

For more information, read the press release.