Machine learning can help us predict landslides caused by climate change

Christoph Mertz, the principal project scientist at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, started taking pictures of the hills overlooking Pittsburgh's West End on his smartphone. "Every day, for months, I was collecting images of these hillsides," Mertz said. "I wanted to see if I could use these pictures as a way to predict the next landslide." Landslides are natural phenomena, but many of the conditions that can increase their likelihood are caused by human activity, such as directing surface runoff to an area or altering natural slopes for the construction of buildings and roads. Combined with increased rainfall rates related to climate change, landslides in the United States have become more common and more severe.