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<br /> <br />CCThlm]])t;~re J1 <br />Introduction <br /> <br />According to available information, landsliding <br />in the United States causes an average of25 to <br />50 deaths (Committee on Ground Failure Haz- <br />ards, 1985) and $1 to $2 billion in economic <br />losses annually (Schuster and Fleming, 1986). <br />Although all 50 states are subject to landslide <br />activity, the Rocky Mountain, Appalachian, and <br />Pacific Coast regions generally suffer the great- <br />est landslide losses (Figures la, b). The costs of <br />landsliding can be direct or indirect and range <br />from the expense of cleanup and repair or <br />replacement of structures to lost tax revenues <br />and reduced productivity and property values. <br />Landslide losses are growing in the United <br />States despite the availability of successful <br />techniques for landslide management and <br /> <br />control. The failure to lessen the problem is <br />primarily due to the ever-increasing pressure <br />of development in areas of geologically hazard- <br />ous terrain and the failure of responsible gov- <br />ernment entities and private developers to <br />recognize landslide hazards and to apply ap- <br />propriate measures for their mitigation, even <br />though there is overwhelming evidence that <br />landslide hazard mitigation programs serve <br />both public and private interests by saving <br />many times the cost of implementation. The <br />high cost of landslide damage (Table 1) will <br />continue to increase if community development <br />and capital investments continue without tak- <br />ing advantage of the opportunities that cur- <br />rently exist to mitigate the effects oflandslides. <br /> <br /> <br />Figure 1 a. Map showing relative potential of different parts of the conterminous United States <br />to landsliding (U.S. Geological Survey, 1981a). <br /> <br />1 <br />