Geologic Monitoring Networks

KGS, KY Divison of Water, and USGS maintain a comprehensive network of monitoring wells to monitoring groundwater levels, quality, and flow patterns across Kentucky to support water resource management and protection.

KGS is also developing applications for viewing data from monitoring wells in near real-time (hourly reporting):

• KY Groundwater Observation Well at the Kentucky Horse Park (KGON-1)

The KGS Landslide Hazards & Engineering Geology Team maintains a comprehensive landslide hazard program that includes active inventory mapping, landslide susceptibility and risk modeling, and slope hydrologic monitoring.,. Our team specifically leverages the inventory and susceptibility data to operate 24 slope hydrologic monitoring stations. These stations measure soil water content, soil water potential, soil temperature, and other related soil parameters. Each station is also equipped with a weather station that measures rainfall, wind, air temperature, solar radiation, and other parameters. We operate 24 stations across the eastern Kentucky coal field. The data is collected in an integrated system that allows near-real-time access and visualization. This network of stations supports several areas of research including slope stability studies, contextualizing landslide occurrence and weather, and support of weather-driven landslide forecast models. Landslides cost the Commonwealth of Kentucky $10-20 million dollars annually in direct costs, impacting roads, bridges, homes, infrastructure, and property. This monitoring will help goals of better understanding landslides hazards, mitigating impacts, and reducing risk. This work is part of the NSF-funded EPSCoR CLIMBS project.