JZUS - Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE

Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE A 2007 Vol.8 No.11 P.1695-1711

http://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.2007.A1695

Slope stability hazard management systems

Author(s): FREDLUND Delwyn G.
Affiliation(s): Department of Civil Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada; more
Corresponding email(s): unsaturatedsoil@yahoo.com
Key Words: Slope stability, Geo-hazards, Highway, Hazard, Slope stability management system

Share this article to： More \|Next Article >>>

Abstract: Weather-related hazards%29&ck%5B%5D=abstract&ck%5B%5D=keyword'>geo-hazards are a major concern for both natural slopes and man-made slopes and embankments. Government agencies and private companies are increasingly required to ensure that there is adequate protection of sloping surfaces in order that interaction with the climate does not produce instability. Superior theoretical formulations and computer tools are now available to address engineering design issues related to the near ground surface soil-atmospheric interactions. An example is given in this paper that illustrates the consequences of not paying adequate attention to the hazards of slope stability prior to the construction of a highway in South America. On the other hand, examples are given from Hong Kong and Mainland China where significant benefits are derived from putting in place a hazard slope stability management system. Some results from a hazard management slope stability study related to the railway system in Canada are also reported. The study took advantage of recent research on unsaturated soil behaviour and applied this information to real-time modelling of climatic conditions. The quantification of the water balance at the ground surface, and subsequent infiltration, is used as the primary tool for hazard level assessment. The suggested hazard model can be applied at either specific high risk locations or in a more general, broad-based manner over large areas. A more thorough understanding of unsaturated soil behaviour as it applies to near ground surface soils, along with the numerical computational power of the computer has made it possible for new approaches to be used in slope hazard management engineering.

Reference

[1] Anderson, M.G., 1983. Prediction of Soil Suction for Slopes in Hong Kong. GCO Publication No. 1/84. Geotechnical Control Office (GCO), Hong Kong Government.

[2] Ang, A.H.S., Tang, W.H., 1984. Probability Concepts in Engineering Planning and Design. John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA, p.562.

[3] Applied Decision Analysis LLC, 1998. DPL 4.0: Professional Decision Analysis Software—Academic Edition. Price Water House Coopers, Pacific Grove, USA, p.682.

[4] Brand, E.W., 1982. Analysis and Design in Residual Soils. ASCE Specialty Conference on Engineering and Construction in Tropical and Residual Soils. Honolulu, HI, p.89-143.

[5] Brand, E.W., 1985. Geotechnical Engineering in Tropical Residual Soils. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Geomechanics in Tropical Lateritic and Residual Soils. Brasilia, Brazil, 3:23-91.

[6] Fell, R., 1994. Landslide risk assessment and acceptable risk. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 31(2):261-272.

[7] Fredlund, D.G., 1981. The shear strength of unsaturated soils and its relationship to slope stability problems in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Engineer, 9(4):37-45.

[8] Fredlund, D.G., 2002a. Teaching Unsaturated Soil Mechanics as Part of the Undergraduate Civil Engineering Curriculum. Proceedings of the Second Pan American Conference on the Teaching Learning Process of the Geotechnical Engineering. Quayaquil, Ecuador.

[9] Fredlund, D.G., 2002b. Field Trip along the Highway from Quayaquil, Ecuador to Peru through the Andes. Sponsored by the Department of Public Works, Government of Ecuador. Personal Communications with Department Engineers.

[10] Fredlund, D.G., 2002c. Use of the Soil-water Characteristic Curve in the Implementation of Unsaturated Soil Mechanics. Third International Conference on Unsaturated Soils. Recife, Brazil.

[11] Fredlund, D.G., 2006. The 2005 Terzaghi lecture: “unsaturated soil mechanics in engineering practice”. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, 132(3):286-321.

[12] Fredlund, D.G., Rahardjo, H., 1993. Soil Mechanics for Unsaturated Soil. John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA, p.517.

[13] Fredlund, D.G., Xing, A., 1994. Equations for the soil-water characteristic curve. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 31(4):521-532.

[14] Fredlund, D.G., Xing, A., Huang, S., 1994. Predicting the permeability function for unsaturated soil using the soil-water characteristic curve. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 31(4):533-546.

[15] Fredlund, D.G., Xing, A., Fredlund, M.D., 1996. The relationship of the unsaturated shear strength to the soil-water characteristic curve. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 33(3):440-448.

[16] Fredlund, M.D., 1999. The Role of Unsaturated Soil Property Functions in the Practice of Unsaturated Soil Mechanics. Ph.D Thesis, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, p.292.

[17] Fredlund, M.D., Wilson, G.W., Fredlund, D.G., 2002. Use of grain-size distribution for the estimation of the soil-water characteristic curve. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 39(5):1103-1117.

[18] Gitirana, de F.N.G. Jr., Fredlund, D.G., 2003a. From Experimental Evidence Towards the Assessment of Weather-related Railway Embankment Hazards. Proceedings of the International Conference on “From Experimental Evidence Towards Numerical Modeling of Unsaturated Soils”. Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany.

[19] Gitirana, de F.N.G. Jr., Fredlund, D.G., 2003b. Analysis of Transient Embankment Stability Using the Dynamic Programming Method. Proceedings of the 56th Canadian Geotechnical Conference. Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1:807-814.

[20] Gitirana, de F.N.G. Jr., Fredlund, D.G., 2005. Unsaturated Soil Mechanics as a Series of Partial Differential Equations. Proceedings of the International Conference on Problematic Soils. Farmagusta, North Cyprus, p.3-30.

[21] Harr, M.E., 1987. Reliability-Based Design in Civil Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, New York, p.291.

[22] Kasim, F.B., Fredlund, D.G., Gan, J.K.M., 1998. Effect of Steady State Rainfall on Long Term Matric Suction Conditions on Slopes. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Unsaturated Soils. Beijing, China, 1:78-83.

[23] Leach, B., Herbert, R., 1982. The genesis of a numerical model for the study of the hydrogeology of a steep hillslope in Hong Kong. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology, 15:253-259.

[24] Nippon Technologies Industries, 2005a. Supervision and Evaluation Support for Sihu Basin Water and Flood Management Integrated with Yangtze River Dyke Flood Operations. Yangtze River Dyke Strengthening Project, Report No. 3. An Evaluation of DSS Development Plans and Design, Prepared by Nippon Technologies Industries Ltd., in conjunction with Golder Associates Ltd., for the World Bank, May.

[25] Nippon Technologies Industries, 2005b. Supervision and Evaluation Support for Sihu Basin Water and Flood Management Integrated with Yangtze River Dyke Flood Operations. Yangtze River Dyke Strengthening Project, Report No.4. An Evaluation of Sihu and Hubei DSS Applications and Implementations, Prepared by Nippon Technologies Industries Ltd., in conjunction with Golder Associates Ltd., for the World Bank, August.

[26] Nippon Technologies Industries, 2006. Supervision and Evaluation Support for Sihu Basin Water and Flood Management Integrated with Yangtze River Dyke Flood Operations. Yangtze River Dyke Strengthening Project, Operations, Stage Two Activities, Report No.5. Recommendations and Implementation, Prepared by Nippon Technologies Industries Ltd., in conjunction with Golder Associates Ltd., for the World Bank, September.

[27] Penman, H.L., 1948. Natural Evapotranspiration from Open Water, Bare Soil and Grass. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, Serial A, (193):120-145.

[28] Pham, H.T.V., Fredlund, D.G., 2003. The application of dynamic programming to slope stability analysis. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 40(4):830-847.

[29] Rahardjo, H., Fredlund, D.G., 1991. Calculation Procedures for Slope Stability Analyses Involving Negative Pore-water Pressures. Proceedings of the International Conference on Slope Stability Engineering, Development, Applications. Isle of Wight, UK.

[30] Rosenblueth, E., 1975. Point estimates for probability moments. Proc. National Academy of Sciences, 72(10):3812-3814.

[31] Sattler, P., Fredlund, D.G., Klassen, M.J., Jubien, W.B., Rowan, W.G., 1989. Bearing Capacity Approach to Railway Design, Utilizing Subgrade Matric Suction. Transportation Research Board, Committee on Railroad Track Structure System Design, Washington D.C., January, Transportation Research Record 1241, p.27-33.

[32] Sillers, W.S., Fredlund, D.G., 2001. Statistical assessment of soil-water characteristic curve models for geotechnical engineering. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 38(6):1297-1313.

[33] SoilVision Systems Ltd., 1996. SoilVision User’s Guide—A Knowledge-based System for Geotechnical Engineers. Version 1.0. Saskatoon, SK, Canada.

[34] SoilVision Systems Ltd., 2003. SVFlux User’s Manual—A Saturated-unsaturated Finite Element Seepage Model. Saskatoon, SK, Canada.

[35] Sweeney, D.J., 1982. Some in Situ Suction Measurements in Hong Kong’s Residual Soil Slopes. Proceedings of the 7th Southeast Asia Conference, Hong Kong, 1:91-106.

[36] Sweeney, D.J., Robertson, P., 1979. A fundamental approach to slope stability in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Engineer, p.35-44.

[37] Transportation Safety Board of Canada, 1994. A Special Study of Main Track Derailments. Transportation Safety Board Press, Ottawa, Canada.

[38] Transportation Safety Board of Canada, 2001. Annual Statistics—2001. Transportation Safety Board Press, Ottawa, Canada.

[39] Wilson, G.W., Fredlund, D.G., Barbour, S.L., 1994. Coupled soil-atmosphere modeling for soil evaporation. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 31(2):151-161.

[40] Wilson, G.W., Barbour, S.L., Fredlund, D.G., 1997. The effect of soil suction on evaporative fluxes from soil surfaces. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 34(1):145-155.

[41] Yamagami, T., Ueta, Y., 1988. Search for Critical Slip Lines in Finite Element Stress Field by Dynamic Programming. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics. Innsbruck, p.1347-1352.

[42] Zhang, L.L., Fredlund, D.G., Zhang, L.M., Tang, W.H., 2004. Numerical study of soil conditions under which matric suction can be maintained. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 41(4):569-582.

Open peer comments: Debate/Discuss/Question/Opinion

<1>

Similar articles

- Go to

Darkslateblue:Affiliate; Royal Blue:Author; Turquoise:Article

Reference