NASA Landslide Reporter

Landslide Reporter
LANDSLIDES @ NASA

The Landslide
Reporter’s Guide

Tips to
Pinpoint
Landslide
Location from
a News Article
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Contents
Most of the time, a news article will
not give you the exact location for a
landslide.
This guide is meant to help you hone
in on the location as close as
possible so you can input the most
accurate location into Landslide
Reporter. Using Google Maps or
Google Earth is recommended.
You will be able to find:
• Landslide location in geographic
coordinates (latitude, longitude)
• Location accuracy, as a radius of
uncertainty in the landslide’s
location.

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Use Keywords and
Photos for Clues - 1
Articles might mention:
• Exact addresses
• Roads or the intersection of two
roads
• Mile markers/ milepost markers
• Town, county, province
• Nearby landmarks, buildings,
areas, mountains, towns

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Use Keywords and Photos
for Clues - 2
For example, an article might read:
“A landslide has closed the
westbound lane of Landslide
Highway at Mudslide Road in
Montgomery County this afternoon.”
Already you know that the slide has
occurred:
• In Montgomery County
• At the intersection of Landslide
Highway and Mudslide Road
• How much road the slide covered
(so you can infer the size of the
landslide)
• The date of the landslide (same
date that the article was written, in
this example)

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Use Keywords and Photos
for Clues - 3
Photos can give clues to the
location too. You can compare
the view in Google Maps
satellite or street view to the
view in the article.
In Google Maps or Google
Earth, you can play around
with the 3D map to adjust the
view further.
A massive May 2017 landslide cut off Highway
1 and access to Big Sur, CA, USA (Source:
Google Maps, Monterey County Sheriff’s Dept.)

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Take Note of Location
Accuracy - 1
Location accuracy says how close
your location estimate is to the
actual location of the landslide.

Your location
accuracy, a radius
of uncertainty
(e.g. 1 km).

Your point (or
polygon) where
you report the
landslide occurred.
Your point/polygon and location
accuracy represent this shaded
area, which means the landslide is
likely to have occurred anywhere
inside this area.
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Take Note of Location
Accuracy - 2
When you don’t know the exact
location of a landslide,
1. Center your guess based on the
clues from the news article.
2. Make sure the guess is
reasonable. (Which sounds more
reasonable, “the landslide
occurred on a slope” or ‘the
landslide occurred on top of a
building”?)
3. Based on location information,
where is the farthest reasonable
extent the landslide could have
occurred? Could it have occurred
anywhere in the village?
Anywhere along the entire
stretch of road? Anywhere in the
entire forest? That will be the
farthest distance that
determines the length of the
location accuracy.
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Take Note of Location
Accuracy - 3
Measure location accuracy using
Google Maps or Google Earth.
Google Maps
Right-click on the
place your landslide
occurred and select
“Measure Distance”.

Use a line segment
to draw the location
accuracy from your
center point and
take note of the
distance in
kilometers (km).

Edge of
possible
location of
landslide
Your point

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Take Note of Location
Accuracy - 4
Measure location accuracy using
Google Maps or Google Earth.
Google Earth
In the Google Earth
toolbars, open the
ruler menu.
Use a line segment to draw
the location accuracy starting
from the point your landslide
occurred, and take note of the
distance in kilometers (km).
Edge of possible
location of landslide

Your point

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Measure Distance to
Find a Location - 1
If your article tells you the landslide
is a specific number of miles away
from a town or road, the best way to
locate the landslide is to measure
the distance yourself.
For example:
“The landslide occurred on U.S. 101,
5 miles south of Crescent City, CA”
With this information, we can
measure 5 miles along U.S. 101
from the edge of Crescent City to
pinpoint the location of the landslide
in Google Maps or Google Earth.
Note that, when articles give a distance
from a location, they usually mean if
you were driving down that road, so you
should trace distance along the road
(see the next page)
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Measure Distance to Find
a Location - 2
Google Maps

Right-click on the
place your landslide
occurred and select
“Measure Distance”.

Click to trace the
correct distance
along the road.

Note that you can
drag points to
adjust their position
or click them to
remove them.

Keep track of
the distance
measured.

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landslides.nasa.gov

Measure Distance to Find
a Location - 3
Google Maps
You have now found
the distance and
measured the
location, so you can
right click to clear
the measurement.

Click on the map
where the landslide
should be based on
your measurement
to mark it.
The latitude and
longitude of the
point you marked
will open.

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Measure Distance to Find
a Location - 4
Google Earth
The procedure is the same as
Google Maps, but using the Ruler.
On the left Layers
menu, make sure
Roads are checked
so they’re visible.

In the Google Earth
toolbars, open the
ruler dialog box.

To trace the road,
select Path from the
tabs and change
the length to the
desired unit.
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Copy/Paste the
Geographic Coordinates
-1

Once you have found the landslide
location in Google Maps or Google
Earth, we need to transfer that
location to Landslide Reporter.

Rather than try to find your location
all over again in the Landslide
Reporter map, let’s copy/paste the
geographic coordinates!

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Copy/Paste the Geographic
Coordinates - 2
Google Maps
Click your landslide
location on the map

When the details
box opens at the
bottom of the
screen, click on the
coordinates

On the sidebar that
opens, copy the
coordinates

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Copy/Paste the Geographic
Coordinates - 3
Google Earth
In the Google Earth
toolbars, open the
placemark menu.
When a placemark
appears, drag the
tip to your exact
landslide location.

In the New
Placemark
window, copy
both the latitude
and longitude
coordinates.

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Copy/Paste the Geographic
Coordinates - 4
In Landslide Reporter, paste the
coordinates copied from Google
Maps or Google Earth.
• Click to expand the address menu
suggestions, and select the
combination of X and Y coordinates
that best match your landslide
location.

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Copy/Paste the Geographic
Coordinates - 4
• Upon selecting the X and Y
coordinates from the address
suggestion menu, your point will
automatically appear on the map.
• Click on the map to refine the
location of your circle.

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Complete your
Landslide Report
You have now successfully recorded
the location of your landslide, and
can continue filling out the rest of
the Landslide Reporter form.
These are suggestions for one way to
find your landslide location, so feel
free to use any method that you are
most comfortable with.
Remember to adjust the
Location Description on your
landslide report after updating
the location on the map.

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Landslide Reporter
LANDSLIDES @ NASA
landslides.nasa.gov

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