Landslide Hazards in Hamilton County, TN 

Presenter(s)

A.K.M. Azad Hossain, Jacob Burleson, Jonathan Mies

Abstract or Description

The geologic setting and topography of Hamilton County, TN, make the area prone to landslides. The Chattanooga-Hamilton Regional Planning Agency reported the probability of the occurrences of landslides as “low – moderate” based on historical data (http://www.chcrpa.org/index.htm). According to this report, many hillsides and steep slopes in Hamilton County present areas potentially susceptible to landslide and erosion. It was also found that past landslide events had been associated with heavy rain, removal of vegetation, or roadway construction. Areas adjacent to stream banks are also susceptible to severe erosion following heavy rains. Although the occurrences of landslides in Chattanooga-Hamilton County areas were recognized as a “moderate” hazard, the severity of the problem was not realized until early 2019 when the landslide along Signal Mountain Road destroyed the Subway Restaurant. The problem drew more attention when landslides occurred in several other places in Chattanooga during the same period.

Since August 2016, the Geological and Environmental Remote Sensing (GERS) laboratory in the Department of Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) has been conducting research on the occurrences of landslides in the Chattanooga-Hamilton County areas to assist local jurisdictions with development decisions and landslide hazard mitigation.

This project is focused on the development of a Web-GIS based portal to visualize the occurrences of landslides and to develop models to identify potential areas for the occurrence of landslides using geospatial technologies coupled with machine learning algorithms.