Implementing low-cost landslide risk reduction: a pilot study in unplanned housing areas of the Caribbean

Landslides pose a serious physical and environmental threat to vulnerable communities living in areas of unplanned housing on steep slopes in the Caribbean. Some of these communities have, in the past, had to be relocated, at costs of millions of dollars, because of major slides triggered by tropical storm rainfall. Even so, evidence shows that: (1) risk reduction is a marginal activity; (2) there has been minimal uptake of hazard maps and vulnerability assessments and (3) there is little on-the-ground delivery of construction for risk reduction. This article directly addresses these issues by developing a low-cost approach to the identification of the potential pore pressure changes that trigger such slides we seek to address these three commentaries directly. A complex 45–60° slope site in St Lucia, West Indies was selected as a pilot for a modelling approach that uses numerical models (FLAC and CHASM) to verify the need for surface water management to effectively reduce landslide risk. Following the model confirmation, a series of drains were designed and constructed at the site. Post-construction evidence indicates the methodology to be sound, in that the site was stable in subsequent 1-in-1 to 1-in-4 year rainfall events. A critical feature of the approach is that it is community-based from data acquisition through to community members participating in construction.     

西安金盆水库放水塔附近滑坡特征及成因分析

放水塔附近滑坡是金盆水库右岸原1号滑坡体下游边界段的残留体,受短期强降水因素的诱发导致坡体变形、失稳滑动。滑坡体具顺层牵引滑动特征,且平面上,不同区段变形破坏程度不同,其表现形式与坡体平面旋转有一定的相似性。坡体滑动主要受4组结构面的控制,其中的软弱片理结构面（产状1501703555）与产状为2302903555的另一组结构面构成滑坡的滑动控制面。基岩内发育的大量的软弱片理结构面,大气强降水,滑坡上部相对平缓的地貌及人类工程对地表植被环境的破坏,滑坡体下部喷护层的存在等因素的综合影响,导致了坡体的失稳滑动。     

地下采矿诱发斜坡移动变形分析

地下采矿与滑坡的关系问题是近期社会关注的热点问题。基于对此问题已有研究的不足,以及随机介质理论在矿区地表移动与变形预测中的广泛应用,探索采用随机介质理论方法对地下采矿条件下坡体的移动变形规律进行研究。以重庆武隆鸡尾山崩滑体为研究对象,建立了坡体内两个地下采矿剖面的计算模型,并通过计算机编程辅助计算,对地下采矿条件下坡体的移动变形规律进行了分析,并对不同地下采矿工况分别进行了详细研究。计算表明,采矿诱发的坡体不均匀沉降加剧了鸡尾山坡体的移动下滑趋势,认为随机介质理论适用于地下采矿诱发的坡体移动变形分析。     

Residual strength of slip zones of large landslides in the Three Gorges area, China

Slip zones of the large landslides in the Three Gorges area are commonly composed of fine-grained soils with substantial amount of coarse-grained particles, particularly gravel-sized particles. In this study, residual strength of the soils from slip zones of these landslides were examined in relation to their index properties based on a survey of 170 landslides. It was found that laboratory-determined residual friction angle using gravel-free fraction of the disturbed soils from the slip zones was closely related to clay content, liquid limit and plasticity index. On the other hand, in-situ residual friction angle of these soils (i.e. including gravel fraction) showed very weak correlations with clay content and Atterberg limits, but was largely dependent on gravel and fines (clays + silts) contents, increasing with gravels and decreasing with fines, and displayed strong linear correlation with the ratio of gravel to fines contents. These observations indicate that among the index properties, clay content and Atterberg limits can be used to estimate residual strength of the soils finer than 2 mm, but they are not appropriate evaluate the residual strength of the soils containing considerable amount of gravel-sized particles. For the latter, particle size distribution (particularly the ratio of gravel to fines contents) appears to be a useful index. Additionally, it was found that there was no identifiable correlation between relative abundance of individual major clay minerals and residual friction angles of both gravel-free fraction of disturbed and in-situ soils, suggesting that influence of clay minerals on residual strength of these soils can not be simply evaluated based on their abundance.     

宝鸡市狄家坡滑坡稳定性研究

宝鸡市狄家坡斜坡是一个古滑坡。在调查滑坡区水文地质和工程地质条件的前提下, 本文描述了滑坡的形态与物质结构、滑坡表层的变形破坏特征及其影响因素, 探讨了古滑坡的发生机制。引用可以任意条分块体的Sarma方法, 研究了该滑坡在自然、地震、饱水和三者同时存在共四种状态下的稳定性, 并进行了斜坡表层黄土坡体的稳定性对于地下水位上升的敏感性分析。基本结论是, 狄家坡滑坡在整体上是稳定的, 其表层的黄土坡体在地下水位上升时会发生失稳破坏。最后, 提出了进行滑坡防治的工程对策。     

地震诱发滑坡的危险性分析与预测

结合地震滑坡的特点和相关文献研究,介绍了地震力的分析方法、地震滑坡的机理、地震危险性分析的方法、地震活动性参数的确定方法以及场点地震危险性概率计算原则。将两种地震诱发滑坡预测结果进行对比,分析结果表明,地震滑坡危险区主要集中在中国西部地区（川、滇、甘、陕、新疆等省区）及中国台湾地区,随预测年限的增加场地的地震滑坡危险性也随之增高,地震崩塌滑坡的危险区域明显加大。     

APPLICATION OF UAVLS TO RAPID GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS

Three-dimensional scanning with LiDAR has been widely used in geological surveys. The LiDAR with high accuracy is promoting geoscience quantification. And it will be much more convenient, efficient and useful when combining it with the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). This study focuses on UAV-based Laser Scanning (UAVLS)geological field mapping, taking two examples to present advantages of the UAVLS in contrast with other mapping methods. For its usage in active fault mapping, we scanned the Nanpo village site on the Zhangxian segment of the West Qinling north-edge fault. It effectively removed the effects of buildings and vegetation, and uncovered the fault trace. We measured vertical offset of 1.3m on the terrace T₁ at the Zhang river. Moreover, we also scanned landslide features at the geological hazard observatory of Lanzhou University in the loess area. The scanning data can help understand how micro-topography affects activation of loess landslides. The UAVLS is time saving in the field, only spending about half an hour to scan each site. The amount of average points per meter is about 600, which can offer topography data with resolution of centimeter. The results of this study show that the UAVLS is expected to become a common, efficient and economic mapping tool.     

A comparison of the GIS based landslide susceptibility assessment methods: multivariate versus bivariate

The purpose of this study is to evaluate and to compare the results of multivariate (logical regression) and bivariate (landslide susceptibility) methods in Geographical Information System (GIS) based landslide susceptibility assessment procedures. In order to achieve this goal the Asarsuyu catchment in NW Turkey was selected as a test zone because of its well-known landslide occurrences interfering with the E-5 highway mountain pass.Two methods were applied to the test zone and two separate susceptibility maps were produced. Following this a two-fold comparison scheme was implemented. Both methods were compared by the Seed Cell Area Indexes (SCAI) and by the spatial locations of the resultant susceptibility pixels.It was found that both of the methods converge in 80% of the area; however, the weighting algorithm in the bivariate technique (landslide susceptibility method) had some severe deficiencies, as the resultant hazard classes in overweighed areas did not converge with the factual landslide inventory map. The result of the multivariate technique (logical regression) was more sensitive to the different local features of the test zone and it resulted in more accurate and homogeneous susceptibility maps.     

Analysis of the Chiufengershan landslide triggered by the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan

A disastrous earthquake rocked Taiwan on September 21, 1999, with magnitude M_L=7.3 and an epicenter near the small town of Chi-Chi in central Taiwan. The Chi-Chi earthquake triggered landslide on the dip slope at the Chiufengershan. In this study, a review of the topography and geology of this area was followed by field investigations. Laboratory testing was applied to understand the geomaterial composing the slope. Then, based on a series of limit equilibrium analyses, the failure mechanism of this landslide and the risk of the residual slope were studied.

According to the stability analyses, the pre-quake slope is quite stable, with factor of safety of 1.77 (dry) to 1.35 (full groundwater level); explaining why there is no written record of a landslide here for the past 100 years. In contrast, a back analysis shows that the Chi-Chi earthquake-induced dynamic loading is far more than the dip slope can sustain, due in part to the short distance to the epicenter. A Monte Carlo type probability analysis suggests that the residual slope is more dangerous than the pre-quake slope and needs more attention.     

The 17 March 2005 Kuzulu landslide (Sivas, Turkey) and landslide-susceptibility map of its near vicinity

Landslides are common natural hazards in the seismically active North Anatolian Fault Zone of Turkey. Although seismic activity, heavy rainfall, channel incisions, and anthropogenic effects are commonly the main triggers of landslides, on March 17, 2005, a catastrophic large landslide in Sivas, northeastern of Turkey, the Kuzulu landslide, was triggered by snowmelt without any other precursor. The initial failure of the Kuzulu landslide was rotational. Following the rotational failure, the earth material in the zone of accumulation exhibited an extremely rapid flow caused by steep gradient and high water content. The Agnus Creek valley, where Kuzulu village is located, was filled by the earth-flow material and a landslide dam was formed on the upper part of Agnus Creek. The distance from the toe of the rotational failure down to the toe of the earth flow measured more than 1800 m, with about 12.5 million m³ of displaced earth material. The velocity of the Kuzulu landslide was extremely fast, approximately 6 m/s. The main purposes of this study are to describe the mechanism and the factors conditioning the Kuzulu landslide, to present its environmental impacts, and to produce landslide-susceptibility maps of the Kuzulu landslide area and its near vicinity. For this purpose, a detailed landslide inventory map was prepared and geology, slope, aspect, elevation, topographic-wetness index and stream-power index were considered as conditioning factors. During the susceptibility analyses, the conditional probability approach was used and a landslide-susceptibility map was produced. The landslide-susceptibility map will help decision makers in site selection and the site-planning process. The map may also be accepted as a basis for landslide risk-management studies to be applied in the study area.