Geological features and landslide mechanisms of an unstable coastal slope (Petacciato, Italy)

On the basis of geological and geomorphological surveys, landslide phenomena are analysed on a slope along a stretch of the Adriatic coast, near Petacciato (Molise, Italy).

Locally, a blue clay sequence of Pleistocene outcrops, stratified with silty-sandy layers; bedding dips 3–8°NE and the slope has a similar attitude. This sequence evolves upwards to sands and conglomerates, with thickness of up to 40 m, on which the built-up area is located.

Several episodes of landslide reactivation occurred in the past century, involving the zone between the built-up area and the sea, along a coastal slope of over 2000 m long and 200 m high. Important roads and railway lines have been heavily damaged as well as the town itself.

The typology of the movement is a rotational–translational slide; the displacement reaches tens of centimetres at each reactivation episode along the entire coastal slope, extending well beyond the shore line.

Detailed studies already exists, but different mechanism failures have been proposed to explain the landslide phenomena. In this study, a new failure mechanism is proposed, (sudden spreading of Terzaghi, K., Peck, R.B., 1948. Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice. Wiley and Sons New York) and analytical approaches have been adopted to evaluate the slope stability, based on the geotechnical and monitoring data and the geometrical and geological features of the slope.     

Stability analysis of lateritic waste deposits

In open-pit mines covered with lateritic soil, the sterile ground is stored in specially prepared sites. The waste area must then be enhanced in order to extend storage capacity.

To better understand the effect of an elevated dump, typical laboratory tests (triaxial and oedometer tests) have been performed on the lateritic material. The waste disposal site has been modeled using both limit equilibrium and finite element methods. Different types of finite element models have been run; they take the variation of Young's modulus with depth into account and simulate the effect of construction over various phases. Modeling results are then compared with in situ measurements.     

The mobility of long-runout landslides

Several issues relevant to the mobility of long-runout landslides are examined. A central idea developed in this paper is that the apparent coefficient of friction (ratio of the fall height to the runout distance) commonly used to describe landslide mobility is physically meaningless. It is proposed that the runout distance depends primarily on the volume and not on the fall height, which just adds scatter to the correlation. The negative correlation observed between the apparent coefficient of friction and the volume is just due to the fact that, on the gentle slopes on which landslides travel and come to rest, a large increase in runout distance due to a large volume corresponds to a small increase in the total fall height, hence to a decrease in the apparent coefficient of friction.

It is shown that the spreading of a fluid-absent, granular flow is not able to explain the large runout distances of landslides, and in particular does not allow the centre of mass to travel further than expected for a sliding block. This contrasts with the behaviour of natural landslides, for which the centre of mass is shown to travel much further than expected from a simple Coulomb model. The presence of an interstitial fluid which can partly or entirely support the load of particles allows the effective coefficient of solid friction to be reduced or even suppressed. Air is not efficient for fluidising large landslides and a loose debris cannot slide over a basal layer of entrapped and compressed air, as air would rapidly pass through the debris in the form of bubbles during batch sedimentation. Water is much more efficient as a fluidising medium due to its higher density and viscosity, and its incompressibility. As water is known to enhance the mobility of the saturated debris flows, it is proposed that water is also responsible for the long runout of landslides. This is consistent with the fact that the increase in runout with volume is similar for debris flows and landslides. Field evidence suggests that most landslides are unsaturated with water but not dry, even on Mars.

Comparison of the velocity of well-documented landslides with that predicted by fluid-absent, granular models shows that these models predict landslides that are much faster and less responsive to topography than natural ones. The relatively low velocities of landslides suggest that energy dissipation is dominated by a velocity-dependent stress and that the coefficient of solid friction is very low. This is consistent with the physics of fluidised or partly fluidised debris and suggests that landslide velocity may be controlled by local slope and flow thickness rather than by the initial fall height. In the absence of a supply of fluid at the base, fluidisation requires a net downward flux of sediment, implying some deposition at the base of landslides, which may thus progressively run out of material. In such a model, the spreading of the portion of a landslide beyond a certain distance would primarily depend on the volume passing this distance and not on the total volume of the landslide. Landslide deposits may therefore have self-similar shapes, in which the area covered beyond a certain distance is a constant function of the volume beyond that distance. It is shown that the shape of some well-documented landslide deposits is in reasonable agreement with this prediction. One consequence is that, as recently proposed for debris flows, assessment of hazards related to landslides should be based on the correlation between the volume and the area covered by the deposit, rather than on the apparent coefficient of friction.     

Earthquake-induced landslides in Central America

Central America is a region of high seismic activity and the impact of destructive earthquakes is often aggravated by the triggering of landslides. Data are presented for earthquake-triggered landslides in the region and their characteristics are compared with global relationships between the area of landsliding and earthquake magnitude. We find that the areas affected by landslides are similar to other parts of the world but in certain parts of Central America, the numbers of slides are disproportionate for the size of the earthquakes. We also find that there are important differences between the characteristics of landslides in different parts of the Central American isthmus, soil falls and slides in steep slopes in volcanic soils predominate in Guatemala and El Salvador, whereas extensive translational slides in lateritic soils on large slopes are the principal hazard in Costa Rica and Panama. Methods for assessing landslide hazards, considering both rainfall and earthquakes as triggering mechanisms, developed in Costa Rica appear not to be suitable for direct application in the northern countries of the isthmus, for which modified approaches are required.     

虚拟香港中文大学校园的设计与初步试验

采用客户机／服务器结构，应用Java和VRML97开发工具，基于HTTP协议，设计并开发了基于因特网的虚拟校园环境，并以香港中文大学的崇基学院校园为例，建立了系统原型。在中文大学的虚拟校园环境中，用户可进行3维空间漫游探索、点坐标量测和地物属性的查询、地物的增加或删除等操作，并可基于3维化身和文本对话实现在网络的共享虚拟空间中与其他在线用户的交流和互动。     

A procedure for landslide susceptibility zonation by the conditional analysis method

Numerous methods have been proposed for landslide probability zonation of the landscape by means of a Geographic Information System (GIS). Among the multivariate methods, i.e. those methods which simultaneously take into account all the factors contributing to instability, the Conditional Analysis method applied to a subdivision of the territory into Unique Condition Units is particularly straightforward from a conceptual point of view and particularly suited to the use of a GIS. In fact, working on the principle that future landslides are more likely to occur under those conditions which led to past instability, landslide susceptibility is defined by computing the landslide density in correspondence with different combinations of instability factors. The conceptual simplicity of this method, however, does not necessarily imply that it is simple to implement, especially as it requires rather complex operations and a high number of GIS commands. Moreover, there is the possibility that, in order to achieve satisfactory results, the procedure has to be repeated a few times changing the factors or modifying the class subdivision. To solve this problem, we created a shell program which, by combining the shell commands, the GIS Geographical Research Analysis Support System (GRASS) commands and the gawk language commands, carries out the whole procedure automatically. This makes the construction of a Landslide Susceptibility Map easy and fast for large areas too, and even when a high spatial resolution is adopted, as shown by application of the procedure to the Parma River basin, in the Italian Northern Apennines.     

Movement of the Shuping landslide in the first four years after the initial impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam Reservoir, China

The Shuping landslide was reactivated by the initial impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam Reservoir, China in June 2003. For purposes of landslide disaster mitigation in the reservoir area and identification of landslide movement and deformation caused by reservoir level changes, a monitoring system mainly consisting of drum-style extensometers was installed in the eastern part of the Shuping landslide. Systematic monitoring was started in August 2004 with installation of 13 extensometers above the waterline after the initial impoundment. In August 2006, 11 more drum-style extensometers were installed above the high waterline (175 m) and five flexible extensometers were installed along a longitudinal section in the elongation to low waterline. In this paper, the monitoring results from August 2004 to July 2007 are presented and the deforming of the Shuping landslide caused by both reservoir level changes and rainfall is examined.     

三峡水库区巫山县淌里滑坡监测与变形分析

淌里滑坡是三峡水库区地质灾害防治监测预警工程Ⅱ期专业监测点。监测方法为地表位移监测及滑体深部位移监测,同时开展长期地表宏观变形迹象监测调查。通过3a来监测资料的对比分析,各GPS变形监测点均在水平及垂直方向上有变形。即2007年2月位于滑坡前缘的WS-74、WS-75点水平位移分别达到726.91mm及170.88mm,平均年变形速率分别为340mm和80mm;位于滑体下部的WS-75钻孔滑带位置变形明显。该钻孔在2005年5月由于深部位移变形超出测试量程而无法继续监测。在2003年10月至2005年5月20个月内,该钻孔滑带位置累计位移量达46mm以上,月平均变形率达2.3mm。以此变形速率发展,至2006年12月,滑带累计位移变形量将在100mm左右。滑坡的变形集中在滑坡的前缘地带及次级滑坡,从2003年至今,宝子滩崩滑体附近已有将近20×10^4m^3的崩塌堆积层滑入江中。目前滑坡处于匀速变形阶段,为不稳定状态,滑坡区内的4户18人和宝子滩民用码头的安全受到威胁。     

化学灌浆在贵州岩溶山区滑坡治理中的应用

随着公路建设规模的扩大,在贵州岩溶山区边坡及滑坡出现的数量越来越多,治理难度也越来越大。如何用一种经济、施工简便的方法解决贵州岩溶山区滑坡治理问题,成为贵州公路建设中亟待解决的一个重要课题。文章对化学灌浆法在贵州某高速公路滑坡治理中的运用进行试验探索,解决了地层能否灌浆处理;地层灌浆处理时,需要何种浆液材料;采用多大的压力,灌入多少浆液等问题。并在工程治理中选取75个孔做灌浆试验。根据试验确定了灌浆扩散半径、孔距、排距等参数。通过探井开挖试验、标准贯入试验、声波波速测试等检测方法进行灌浆治理效果的检测评价,从检测结论可知,该方法具有很好的效果。为了比较其经济性,还作了3种滑坡治理方案的经济技术对比。从对比结果可知,化学灌浆技术具有很强的经济优势。因此,该技术在岩溶山区的滑坡治理中有很好的适用性及应用前景。     

基于地矿点源信息系统的空间数据模型研究

随着地矿工作信息化水平的提高,为了管理和组织海量的空间数据,空间数据模型的有效构建成为地矿信息工作者面临的实际问题。简要介绍了空间数据模型的分类和层次结构,着重讨论了面向对象数据模型以及用统一建模语言构建面向对象数据模型的方法。