The University of Kentucky's Kentucky Geological Survey has launched a pioneering digital platform designed to help Eastern Kentucky communities detect landslides before they occur and potentially save lives. The Slope Hydrologic Monitoring Network represents a milestone in the CLIMBS project, a five-year, $24 million initiative funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation's EPSCoR Program.

The announcement comes after a February 2025 landslide in Fleming-Neon, a community in Letcher County, demonstrated the urgent need for such tools. After heavy weekend rainfall, a hillside suddenly collapsed, sending earth and debris toward occupied homes. The homes sustained damage but no lives were lost. That event was not unique—landslides cause an estimated $10 million to $20 million in annual damage across Kentucky, with particularly concentrated impacts in the state's mountainous eastern region.

The monitoring network consists of 24 stations strategically placed across landslide-prone terrain in Eastern Kentucky. The stations, representing the first of their kind in the eastern U.S., measure vital soil and weather data every 15 minutes. By tracking volumetric water content and matric potential at multiple depths, researchers can connect landslide occurrences directly with soil moisture records.

"Kentucky incurs lots of damage and costs due to landslide impacts, and we want to address where, why and how these are happening," said Matt Crawford, Ph.D., an engineering geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey and project lead. Data from the network is used to develop weather-driven forecasting models that employ machine learning and physics-based methods to predict when a slope is reaching a critical threshold.

The system's public website features interactive maps where monitoring stations are represented by color-coded bubbles indicating soil saturation levels. Users can overlay National Weather Service radar to watch storms move toward sensitive areas in real-time. The site also includes a 14-day history allowing communities to track how particular slopes respond to recent weather events.

CLIMBS (Climate Resilience through Multidisciplinary Big Data Learning, Prediction and Building Response Systems) is a collaborative effort involving eight institutions across Kentucky, designed to address knowledge gaps in climate understanding and disaster response. The project aims to give emergency managers and residents like those in Fleming-Neon hours or days of advance warning before a landslide occurs.