https://escholarship.org/content/qt2tw802pg/qt2tw802pg.pdf?t=pexpjc

Assessment of ground-based monitoring techniques applied to landslide investigations

Landslides pose significant risks to communities and infrastructure, and mitigating these risks relies on understanding landslide causes and triggering processes. It has been shown that geophysical surveys can significantly contribute to the characterization of unstable slopes. However, hydrological processes can be temporally and spatially heterogeneous, requiring their related properties to be monitored over time. Geoelectrical monitoring can provide temporal and volumetric distributions of electrical resistivity, which are directly related to moisture content. To date, studies demonstrating this capability have been restricted to 2D sections, which are insufficient to capture the full degree of spatial heterogeneity. This study is the first to employ 4D (i.e., 3D time-lapse) resistivity imaging on an active landslide, providing long-term data (three years) highlighting the evolution of moisture content prior to landslide reactivation and showing its decline post reactivation. Crucially the time-lapse inversion methodology employed here incorporates movements of the electrodes on the unstable surface. Although seasonal characteristics dominate the shallow moisture dynamics during the first two years with surficial drying in summer and wetting in winter, in the months preceding reactivation, moisture content increased by more than 45 % throughout the slope. This is in agreement with independent data showing a significant rise in piezometric heads and shallow soil moisture contents as a result of prolonged and intense rainfall. Based on these results, remediation measures could be designed and early-warning systems implemented. Thus, resistivity monitoring that can allow for moving electrodes provides a new means for the effective mitigation of landslide risk.

/pdf/four-dimensional-imaging-of-moisture-dynamics-during-m0tej7olct.pdf

Four-dimensional imaging of moisture dynamics during landslide reactivation

https://escholarship.org/content/qt9pc307nm/qt9pc307nm.pdf?t=pexq1c

Landslide characterization using P- and S-wave seismic refraction tomography — The importance of elastic moduli

In assessing the impact of climate change on infrastructure, it is essential to consider the interactions between the atmosphere, vegetation and the near-surface soil. This paper presents an overview of these processes, focusing on recent advances from the literature and those made by members of COST Action TU1202 – Impacts of climate change on engineered slopes for infrastructure. Climate- and vegetation-driven processes (suction generation, erosion, desiccation cracking, freeze–thaw effects) are expected to change in incidence and severity, which will affect the stability of new and existing infrastructure slopes. This paper identifies the climate- and vegetation-driven processes that are of greatest concern, the suite of known unknowns that require further research, and lists key aspect that should be considered for the design of engineered transport infrastructure slopes in the context of climate change.

/pdf/atmosphere-vegetation-soil-interactions-in-a-climate-change-pdezy86i8u.pdf

Atmosphere–vegetation–soil interactions in a climate change context; impact of changing conditions on engineered transport infrastructure slopes in Europe

In situ measurements of near-saturated hydraulic conductivity in fine grained soils have been made at six exemplar UK transport earthwork sites: three embankment and three cutting slopes. This paper reports 143 individual measurements and considers the factors that influence the spatial and temporal variability obtained. The test methods employed produce near-saturated conditions and flow under constant head. Full saturation is probably not achieved due to preferential and by-pass flow occurring in these desiccated soils. For an embankment, hydraulic conductivity was found to vary by five orders of magnitude in the slope near-surface (0 to 0.3 metres depth), decreasing by four orders of magnitude between 0.3 and 1.2 metres depth. This extremely high variability is in part due to seasonal temporal changes controlled by soil moisture content, which can account for up to 1.5 orders of magnitude of this variability. Measurements of hydraulic conductivity at a cutting also indicated a four orders of magnitude range of hydraulic conductivity for the near-surface, with strong depth dependency of a two orders of magnitude decrease from 0.2 to 0.6 metres depth. The main factor controlling the large range is found to be spatial variability in the soil macro structure generated by wetting/drying cycle driven desiccation and roots. The measurements of hydraulic conductivity reported in this paper were undertaken to inform and provide a benchmark for the hydraulic parameters used in numerical models of groundwater flow. This is an influential parameter in simulations incorporating the combined weather/vegetation/infiltration/soil interaction mechanisms that are required to assess the performance and deterioration of earthwork slopes in a changing climate.

/pdf/in-situ-measurements-of-near-surface-hydraulic-conductivity-1n2tx4unye.pdf

In situ measurements of near-surface hydraulic conductivity in engineered clay slopes

Extreme rainfall events, seasonal weather extremes and long term climate change present a threat to the stability of natural and engineered slopes by altering slope hydrology and shear strength beyond recent historical values. The temporal and spatial fluctuation of slope wetting and drying in response to weather event sequences can be represented using a surface water balance approach of rainfall infiltration and potential evapotranspiration, such as a soil moisture deficit calculation (SMD). This provides an opportunity to address the regional susceptibility of slopes to become unstable when exposed to adverse weather event sequences. However, case studies have shown that site specific characterisation of foundation geology (e.g. permeability and shear strength) is required to assess the vulnerability of specific slopes to pore water pressure fluctuations and slope failure during extreme weather events. The relationship between underlying geology and landslide incidence during extreme weather extremes is illustrated by comparing long term weather data, soil moisture deficit calculations and geological information using a database of over 400 UK land-slide events that occurred between 2004 and 2014.

/pdf/the-influence-of-slope-geology-on-landslide-occurrence-4riailwetb.pdf

The influence of slope geology on landslide occurrence during extreme rainfall

https://www.eprints.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/production/254433/401D8409-9AC2-4CA4-A18B-C700148C9240.pdf

Infrastructure Slopes: Sustainable Management And Resilience Assessment: iSMART Final report

Near surface macropores and macro features (e.g. cracks and fissures) provide pathways for rapid water infiltration into the core of clay fill earthworks. However it is more difficult to measure the size and distribution of macropores located below the weathered soil surface (>1.5 m depth) and hence assess their influence on water flow through the clay fill core of an earthwork. This paper explores the influence of macropores on the rate of water flow within the core of a historic railway earthwork. Samples were excavated from the core (1.5 m–6.5 m depth) of a clay fill railway embankment and subjected to laboratory saturated hydraulic conductivity testing. The samples were scanned using X -ray computed tomography (XCT) before and after laboratory testing. XCT was used to measure the size and distribution of macropores (>63 × 10−6 m) within the samples and compare with the saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements. The results showed that the distribution of macropores and the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the samples from the embankment core was not dependant on the depth of excavation. The total macroporosity of the samples was very small relative to the total porosity (less than 10%). The saturated hydraulic conductivity of the samples was more closely related to the connectivity of the macropores (mean length) than to the total porosity or the total macroporosity. The macropores were variably distributed within the core of the clay fill embankment, they did not show a clear relationship with depth and they were connected over relatively short lengths (the mean macropore length was not greater than 1.6 × 10−3 m). Therefore water flow through the core of the embankment is likely to be through the clay fill matrix, rather than through the connected macropore pathways which allow rapid water infiltration at the near soil surface (

https://purehost.bath.ac.uk/ws/files/189952920/TRGEO_Compiled_27Feb2019.pdf

Macropore structure and permeability of clay fill samples from a historic clay fill earthwork

The UK's transport infrastructure is one of the most heavily used in the world. The performance of these networks is critically dependent on the performance of cutting and embankment slopes which make up £20B of the £60B asset value of major highway infrastructure alone. The rail network in particular is also one of the oldest in the world: many of these slopes are suffering high incidents of instability (increasing with time). This paper describes the development of a fundamental understanding of earthwork material and system behaviour, through the systematic integration of research across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Spatially these range from microscopic studies of soil fabric, through elemental materials behaviour to whole slope modelling and monitoring and scaling up to transport networks. Temporally, historical and current weather event sequences are being used to understand and model soil deterioration processes, and climate change scenarios to examine their potential effects on slope performance in futures up to and including the 2080s. The outputs of this research are being mapped onto the different spatial and temporal scales of infrastructure slope asset management to inform the design of new slopes through to changing the way in which investment is made into aging assets. The aim ultimately is to help create a more reliable, cost effective, safer and more resilient transport system.

/pdf/research-informed-design-management-and-maintenance-of-vina3lr2ca.pdf

Research-informed design, management and maintenance of infrastructure slopes: development of a multi-scalar approach

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

D. Muddle

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

The influence of slope geology on landslide occurrence during extreme rainfall

Infrastructure Slopes: Sustainable Management And Resilience Assessment: iSMART Final report

Macropore structure and permeability of clay fill samples from a historic clay fill earthwork

Research-informed design, management and maintenance of infrastructure slopes: development of a multi-scalar approach