# Natural Hazards

**Agency:** Interior  
**Account:** Surveys, Investigations, and Research  
**Source document:** U.S. Geological Survey · p. 13  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/budget/interior/natural-hazards  

> **Trust:** parsed from the agency Congressional Justification. Approximate, **not summable**, verify at the cited page.

## Funding ($M)

| Fiscal year | Basis | Amount |
| --- | --- | --- |
| FY2026 | enacted | 200.1 |
| FY2027 | request | 136.5 |

## Interior discretionary budget authority (OMB PBDB — authoritative)

FY2027 $18.80B, FY2026 $17.30B. This is the agency total, not a sum of the parsed lines.


## What this funds

Cooperative Landslide Hazards and Assessment Competitive Grant -1,000 +0 Actionable Landslide Hazard Data and Science -3,094 Justification of Program Budget: Landslide Hazards Program Landslides occur in all 50 States and many territories, threatening lives, property, and infrastructure. Widespread landslides can accompany big storms or earthquakes, impacting broad areas and hindering rescue and recovery efforts. For example, in 2024, rainfall associated with Hurricane Helene generated thousands of landslides across southern Appalachian States causing loss of life, impacting transportation and other lifelines, and hampering response, recovery, and rebuilding. The USGS Landslide Hazards Program (LHP) is the only Federal program dedicated to landslide hazard science and conducts targeted studies to understand landslide initiation and mobility processes. This understanding is used to (1) develop methods and models for landslide hazard assessment, (2) develop and deploy systems to monitor threatening landslides, and (3) develop methods and tools for landslide early warning and situational awareness. Program activities are targeted toward the types of landslides that result in human and economic losses in the United States, such as those with long travel distances, those initiated by heavy rainfall, and those exacerbated by the effects of wildfire. The USGS assists Federal, State, and local agencies through landslide site evaluations and provides strategies for reducing ongoing and future impacts from landslides. The LHP deploys near-real-time monitoring systems at active landslide sites to gather continuous movement, rainfall, and hydrologic data needed to understand the mechanisms of landslide occurrence and mobility and forecast future behavior. Such data and understanding form the scientific underpinnings for early warning of conditions that may trigger landslides. The LHP began cooperative work with the National Weather Service (NWS) in 2005 to deliver alerts for debris flows from recently burned areas in southern California. Since then, this limited-scale project has provided essential guidance to emergency, land, and transportation managers for burned areas in the U.S. In FY 2027, the LHP will continue to build on recent scientific advances to expand the project to other parts of the U.S. to meet the intent of the National Landslide Preparedness Act. In 2021, the National Landslide Hazard Preparedness Act was enacted and directs the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the USGS, to establish a program to identify risks and hazards from landslides, reduce losses, protect communities at risk, and improve communication and emergency preparedness. In response, the USGS published a National Strategy for Landslide Loss Reduction and formed an Interagency Coordinating Committee on Landslide Hazards. In FY 2027, the Interagency Committee will support the implementation of the National Landslide Hazard Preparedness Act. The USGS is working to develop and deliver actionable landslide hazard and risk modeling with an emphasis on areas recently burned by wildfire. The USGS is also continuing efforts to meet requirements set out in the National Landslide Preparedness Act by developing Federal capacity to deploy scientists and assets that can provide technical assistance to Federal land managers, State geological surveys, and State and local emergency management. Work is being conducted in partnership with technical expertise from State, academic, and private sectors and data and products and will benefit land and emergency managers at all levels as well as the general public across the United States and Territories with landslide In FY 2027, the LHP will continue to collect data and conduct analyses to assess the landslide hazard in southeast Alaska and continue surveilling landslide movement of the unstable slopes at the terminus of the Barry Glacier to inform the National Tsunami Warning Center and land and emergency managers of The 2027 budget request for the Landslide Hazards Program (LHP) is $11,432,000 and 56 FTE, a Landslide Hazard Assessments in Alaska (-$1,844,000 / -4 FTE) - The 2027 budget continues efforts to support NOAA's National Tsunami Warning Center and will maintain the highest-priority assessment work. In FY 2027, work will be focused on the landslides in Barry Arm and determining recent landslide movement history, field investigations in cooperation with the State, delivery of preliminary landslide and tsunami model results, and developing a longer-term monitoring and hazard assessment strategy. Data collection and monitoring of rainfall conditions in Southeast Alaska to evaluate landslide threat will Cooperative Landslide Hazards and Assessment Competitive Grant Program (-$1,000,000 / -1 FTE) - To address higher priorities, the budget does not request funding for this activity. Actionable Landslide Hazard Data and Science (-$250,000 / +0 FTE) - The USGS will continue the highest-priority work, maintaining delivery of postfire debris-flow hazard assessments and other landslide hazard science objectives described in the National Strategy. Summary of Program Budget Changes Table: Global Seismographic Network Program


**Where it sits:** Civilian / Non-Defense › Interior › U.S. Geological Survey › Surveys, Investigations, and Research › Natural Hazards


*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. government. Civilian line dollars are parsed from agency Congressional Justifications and are approximate.*