EOMF-13. Modeling the effects of climate change on cascading natural hazards

Abstract
Human lives and infrastructure are impacted by natural hazards each year. Climate change can catalyze these events by sequentially perturbing environmental factors that lead to cascading natural hazards. For example, climate-induced drought can enhance wildfire that denudes the landscape and increases the risk for landslide activity, particularly following extreme precipitation events. Understanding the link between climate change and cascading natural hazards is critical for both human safety and mitigation efforts. Here, I use a pair of landslide models to characterize and understand the effects of climate change on natural hazards in the Western U.S. Specifically, I use a shallow hillslope instability model and a debris flow model to evaluate the environmental conditions leading up to recent events in California and Alaska.