Landslides cause human suffering and death, billions of dollars in property losses, and significant environmentital degradation yearly. As population and infrastructure become more concentrated, natural disasters that strike population centers will have a magnified impact on human life and the economy. Although the number of natural disasters may not be larger than in the past, their impact on Society and the economy has increased. Information about landslide hazards cannot by itself reduce the intensity of the events, it but can help to reduce their deleterious impact through better understanding of the risk, better public education and informed public policy and more effective emergency response. The United States can reduce the increasingly high cost of landslides and other natural disasters through the use of earth science information.
