USGS Landslide Proximity Screener — Hazard by Coordinate

Landslide proximity screener. Give it a batch of coordinates (lat/lon) and it returns, per site, whether the point falls inside a mapped landslide, how many mapped landslides sit within your search radius, the nearest landslide's type, confidence and distance, and a single landslide hazard flag — computed over the USGS US Landslide Inventory v3 (~680,000 mapped landslide polygons plus a national point inventory).

This is a landslide hazard screener built for batch, programmatic due diligence: one billable row per asset, even when the site is clear.

Who it's for

• Phase I ESA / environmental due-diligence firms screening a property list for geologic hazards before a site visit.
• P&C and specialty insurers flagging landslide exposure across a book of locations.
• Site-selection & development teams ranking candidate parcels by proximity to historically mapped slides.
• CRE lenders & portfolio managers adding a fast landslide-inventory check to collateral screening.

What it does

For each asset { lat, lon, label } the actor:

1. Runs an authoritative point-in-polygon query against the USGS landslide polygon layer — in_mapped_landslide is TRUE only if the coordinate actually falls inside a mapped landslide.
2. Runs an envelope (bounding-box ≈ radius) query on both the polygon and point layers to gather nearby mapped landslides.
3. Computes a haversine distance from the asset to each nearby record's mapped location to derive landslide_count_within_radius, nearest_landslide_type, nearest_confidence, and nearest_distance_km.
4. Sets landslide_hazard_flag = true if the site is inside a mapped landslide or any mapped landslide is within the radius.

Example input

{
  "assets": [
    { "lat": 34.3617, "lon": -119.4437, "label": "La Conchita, CA (landslide-prone)" },
    { "lat": 37.6872, "lon": -97.3301, "label": "Wichita, KS (flat control)" }
  ],
  "radiusMeters": 1000,
  "maxAssets": 500
}

Output fields (one row per asset)

Field	Meaning
asset_label, asset_lat, asset_lon	Echo of the input site.
radius_meters	Search radius used.
in_mapped_landslide	TRUE if the point is inside a USGS mapped-landslide polygon (authoritative).
landslide_count_within_radius	Distinct mapped landslides within the radius (proxy from record location).
nearest_landslide_type	LS_Type of the nearest landslide (slide, flow, fall, rock avalanche, etc.).
nearest_confidence / nearest_confidence_label	USGS mapping-confidence code (1/2/3/5/8) and its label.
nearest_distance_km	Great-circle distance to the nearest mapped landslide (0 when inside a polygon).
landslide_hazard_flag	TRUE if inside a mapped landslide or any within radius.
error	Per-asset error (invalid coordinate / query failure); null when OK.
disclaimer, source_url, checked_at	Provenance.

Use as an MCP tool

This actor is a clean, chainable MCP tool for AI agents (Claude, Cursor, etc.) via mcp.apify.com: pass a list of coordinates, receive structured landslide-proximity rows. Field-level output descriptions make the results self-documenting for tool use.

Important — what this is (and is not)

This is an editorial proximity screen over the USGS mapped-landslide INVENTORY (a record of where landslides have been observed and mapped). It is NOT a probabilistic landslide-susceptibility or hazard model, and not an engineering or insurance determination. in_mapped_landslide is an exact point-in-polygon test; landslide_count_within_radius and nearest_distance_km are proxies derived from each record's mapped Lat_N/Lon_W (polygon centroid or point location) and can under- or over-state true distance for large or elongated features. Always confirm with USGS maps and a licensed geotechnical engineer before any decision.

FAQ

Is this coordinate on a landslide? Check in_mapped_landslide — it is TRUE only when the point falls inside a USGS mapped-landslide polygon.

How close is the nearest landslide? See nearest_distance_km (0 means the site is inside a mapped landslide).

How many landslides are near my site? landslide_count_within_radius, using the radiusMeters you set.

Which data source? The USGS US Landslide Inventory v3 (ScienceBase item 671eef1f…), served from ArcGIS Online. Keyless and public.

Does an empty/clear result cost much? No — clear sites still return a row (for auditability) billed as a single result; there is no separate charge.

Pricing

Pay-per-result: one row per screened asset. Suggested $10 / 1,000 results ($0.01 per asset).