Geologic Hazard Resources for Cities, Towns, and Counties
by Adam McKean and Steve Bowman
How can the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) Geologic Hazards Program help your city, town, or county understand, prepare for, and respond to geologic hazards?
Ben Erickson and Torri Duncan launch a UGS UAV to collect digital elevation data after the 2024 Silver King Fire to support the emergency response for the town of Marysvale.
Photo courtesy of William Davis, Mayor of Marysvale.
The goal of the UGS’s Geologic Hazards Program is to help reduce risk to Utah’s life safety, property, and economy by assisting local governments (cities, towns, and counties) with geologic hazard issues and providing unbiased scientific information to all for informed decision-making. The UGS has a variety of resources available to support local government and help the public understand geologic hazards, prepare for them, and respond after an event. Many of these resources are web-based and easily accessible online, including our website designed specifically for local governments and other agencies.
Resources for Understanding Geologic Hazards
General educational information about geologic hazards, including earthquakes, landslides, problem soils and rocks, flooding, volcanoes, and more, can be accessed on our website. The UGS has also published a variety of fact sheets on hazards that are available for download or online viewing. A few noteworthy publications include:
The UGS website also hosts an online interactive hazards map, the Geologic Hazards Portal, which allows a user to select and view hazards anywhere in the state. Additionally, our website has a searchable database of geologic hazard maps and publications that can be viewed online or downloaded and printed for use.
An excellent online resource for earthquake information in Utah is “earthquakes.utah.gov,” for which the UGS provides content as a collaborator. This website discusses the geology and history of earthquakes in Utah and provides access to publications, including the preparedness manual Putting Down Roots In Earthquake Country (2nd edition). This guide explains how to prepare for an earthquake and what to do after an earthquake happens. It is available as an English and Spanish print version or as an interactive web version:
English print version
English interactive web version
Spanish print version
Assistance Preparing for Geologic Hazards
The UGS provides geologic hazards planning assistance to local governments in several ways.
The UGS prepares maps showing areas subject to geologic hazards. These maps are generally published at 1:24,000-scale, and can be used to define special study areas where further site-specific investigations should be considered prior to new development. These maps, and related downloadable GIS files, are available on the Geologic Hazards Portal .
The UGS provides a “model” geologic hazard ordinance that can be adopted into a community’s zoning ordinance to address geologic hazards during development. The model geologic hazard ordinance can be easily modified for different conditions found in many Utah local governments (Appendix E in this publication). While the UGS has not published comprehensive geologic hazard maps for all of Utah, the model ordinance defines “geologic hazards study areas” for areas where current mapping is not available, based upon specific geologic and other conditions.
The UGS provides suggested guidelines for investigating geologic hazards and preparing engineering-geology reports that can be implemented as part of a building or land development review and permitting process. These guidelines recommend appropriate, minimum investigative techniques, standards, and report content to ensure adequate geologic site characterization and geologic-hazard investigations to protect public safety and facilitate risk reduction.
The UGS also reviews geologic hazard reports for essential public facilities (police and fire stations, emergency operation centers, schools, etc.).
The UGS is available to assist communities with geologic hazards’ response immediately during and after geologic hazard events and natural disasters, including earthquakes, landslides, debris flows, floods, and ground subsidence. We assist and advise emergency-response officials and assess the nature and extent of the hazard. We also determine the likelihood for short- and long-term recurrence of the hazard, and assist in risk assessment.
Other Useful Tools
The UGS website hosts a wide variety of additional resources and tools that include:
- Survey Notes, a UGS newsletter magazine with articles like this one that is an informative, non-technical source on geologic topics in Utah;
- The Utah Geological Survey GeoData Archive, which contains public domain documents, photographs, and other digital materials related to geology topics; and
- The Utah Aerial Imagery Database, which contains aerial photographs dating from 1935 to the present day, with associated index sheets, orthophotomaps, mosaics, camera calibration reports, and other materials.
Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country
Subsurface Geotechnical Database
Utah Geologic Hazards Portal
Geochronology Database
Aerial Imagery Collection
What Local Government Can Do to Help the Utah Geological Survey
In 2024, House Bill (HB) 384 Utah Geological Survey Data Submission Amendments was passed by the Utah Legislature and took effect on May 1, 2024. HB 384 requires agencies in Utah to submit final geologic, fault hazard, and geotechnical reports received as part of a building or other infrastructure permitting process, to the UGS within 90 days of receipt. Once the reports have been processed through our archival workflow, they are available online in the UGS GeoData Archive System. The UGS uses these reports to support our geologic and geologic-hazard mapping and our Subsurface Geotechnical Database. After the reports are uploaded to our database, original reports are returned to the submitting agency/business.
To submit reports, please mail the report using one of the following methods:
By mail through the U.S. Postal Service:
Utah Geological Survey
Geologic Report Submission
P.O. Box 146100
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-6100
By mail through an alternate delivery service:
Utah Geological Survey
Geologic Report Submission
1594 West North Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah 84116
For digital PDF submittals, use one of the following methods:
- Email the file to: ugs_georeports@utah.gov
- Upload the file to a Google shared drive that the UGS can set up for the compliance agency. Please email ugs_georeports@utah.gov requesting access with a list of your authorized user email addresses.
- Mail a USB flash drive or portable hard drive to one of the UGS addresses above, which can be returned upon request.
Invitation To Meet
As a non-regulatory, scientific state agency, our goal is to collect, analyze, and provide the best available science and information for our community. To help that goal, we invite each local government to meet with us to discuss how we can support their understanding, preparation, and response to geologic hazards. Interested entities can schedule a visit by contacting the UGS at (801) 537-3300 or reaching out to the authors.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Adam McKean
is the Geologic Hazards Program Manager with the UGS. Adam joined the UGS in 2010, and since 2011 he has been a geologic mapper for the Geologic Hazards Program. His work focuses on mapping the geology of the greater Wasatch Front urban area. In addition to geologic mapping, Adam has also been involved in Lake Bonneville and Great Salt Lake research, mapping of the Wasatch fault zone, geologic hazard emergency response and monitoring, paleoseismic trenching, and geologic map and geologic data archiving.
Steve Bowman
joined the UGS in 2008 and has 23 years of experience as a geological engineer/engineering geologist, 9 of those years were on projects throughout the western United States for geotechnical consulting firms. Steve is a Licensed Professional Geologist and Engineer in Utah, a Professional Geological Engineer in Nevada, certified as a LEED Accredited Professional, and serves on the Utah Seismic Safety Commission and the Utah Professional Geologists Licensing Board. He co-led the acquisition of over 20,000 square miles of lidar elevation data in Utah, and leads the geologic data preservation activities at the UGS.
