LandSAR: Visceralizing Landslide Data for Enhanced Situational Awareness in Immersive Analytics

2026-04-10

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenges in effectively analyzing landslide dynamics through post-event observations and the cognitive gap between conventional simulation data and real-world terrain, which hinders situational awareness. To bridge this gap, the authors propose LandSAR, an immersive analytics system that introduces visceralization—embodied data representation—into landslide research for the first time. LandSAR integrates real-time physical simulation, multi-perspective hypothesis exploration, 3D-printed tangible terrain models, and gesture-based interaction to create an immersive interface supporting haptic feedback and multimodal input. User studies demonstrate that the system significantly enhances intuitive understanding of landslide evolution, mitigation strategies, and climate impacts, while improving situational awareness and user engagement, thereby overcoming the limitations of traditional visualization approaches in immersion and cognitive linkage.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Simulating Human Behavior
• Multiagent Systems: Agent-Based Simulation and Emergent Behavior
• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User modeling and simulation for interactive and conversational systems
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data visualization
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web query analysis, representation and understanding

Abstract

Landslides pose a significant threat to public safety, but their dynamic processes are difficult to analyze from post-event observation alone. Computational simulation is therefore essential, but it generates vast, abstract datasets that create a cognitive gap between the analyst and the real-world, physical terrain. While Immersive Analytics (IA) begins to bridge this gap by visualizing data in 3D, we explore how these systems evolve beyond abstract data and integrate data visceralization to enhance Situational Awareness (SA). We present LandSAR, an immersive analytics system that enhances SA for landslide analysis by visceralizing landslide data through integrated simulations and visualizations. LandSAR supports real-time simulations of landslide dynamics, prevention strategies, and climate impacts, enabling multi-perspective what-if analyses. The system uses 3D-printed terrain models as tangible interfaces to facilitate haptic feedback and enable gesture-based exploration, allowing for intuitive geographical perception. Expert interviews and workshops demonstrate that LandSAR effectively improves SA and engagement.

Problem

• Landslide
• Situational Awareness
• Immersive Analytics
• Data Visceralization
• Cognitive Gap

Innovation

• Immersive Analytics
• Data Visceralization
• Situational Awareness
• 3D-Printed Tangible Interface
• Landslide Simulation