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Slope Stability in Engineering Practice - General Report of TC 208
La stabilité des talus dans la pratique de l’ingénieur - Rapport Général du TC 208
Bowman E.T.
University of Sheffield
Fannin R.J.
University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT: This General Report reviews 37 papers from 21 countries or provinces that were submitted to the conference on the
topic of slope stability in engineering practice. These papers serve either to advance the state-of-the-art, else to inform the state-of-
practice. Further, by developing new knowledge, else refining existing knowledge, the observations reported in the papers and the
conclusions that are drawn from them provide for improved decision-making in the face of risk and uncertainty.
RÉSUMÉ : Le présent rapport général passe en revue les 37 communications provenant de 21 pays et provinces qui ont été soumis au
Congrès sur le sujet traitant de la stabilité des talus dans la pratique de l’ingénieur. Les communications ont comme objectif soit de
faire évoluer l’état des connaissances, soit de rendre compte de la pratique actuelle. Par le développement de nouvelles connaissances
ou par l’affinement de connaissances existantes, les observations relatées dans ces communications et les conclusions qui en sont
tirées permettent d’améliorer les processus décisionnels face aux risques et aux incertitudes.
KEYWORDS: Slope stability, landslide, debris flow
1 INTRODUCTION
Slope stability in engineering practice is considered by many
to be a broad-ranging subject, and this viewpoint is perhaps
supported by the diversity of papers submitted to the
conference. Yet, in reality, studies of slope stability in
engineering practice are unified by the common objective of a
better understanding of (i) the spatial and temporal variation of
demand and capacity at the point of origin and (ii) the
magnitude and travel distance of the event along its path of
movement downslope. All of the papers submitted to the
conference address these objectives in one form or another. In
this regard, the findings of the papers serve either to advance the
state-of-the-art, else to inform the state-of-practice. More
importantly, by developing new knowledge, else refining
existing knowledge, the observations reported in the papers and
the conclusions that are drawn from them provide for improved
decision-making in the face of risk and uncertainty.
This General Report reviews 37 papers from 21 countries or
provinces that were submitted to the conference on the topic of
slope stability in engineering practice.
1.1
Focus / approach of papers
Table 1 indicates that there is overlap in the focus of many of
the papers, with 24 of them sharing two or more approaches or
topics. This is particularly evident for papers that have a case
study element with 14 of these linking to a numerical model,
detailed field study and/or risk assessment. It is encouraging to
see that such case studies are being increasingly presented with
a critical and quantitative assessment of the factors that may
have contributed to a slope failure occurring. A further 4 of the
case study papers directly link to implementation of mitigation
measures (
Şengör et al.; Coutinho and da Silva; Bozo and
Allkja; Chang and Huang
), although with the exception of the
paper by
Şengör et al
, other than qualitatively showing the
utility of such measures, the outcomes are neither analysed nor
presented in detail.
Table 1. Number of papers by approach or focus.
Approach / focus
Papers
Case study
21
Numerical - deterministic
9
Numerical - probablistic
6
Field study / instrumentation
6
Experimental / physical model
6
Risk assessment
6
Mitigation measures
6
In contrast, it is interesting to note that 4 of the 9 papers that
use deterministic numerical models do not attempt to validate
against any particular field situation. In these cases, the models
in question may be still at the development stage (
Saha;
Nonoyama et al.; Law et al.)
else the authors intend to illustrate
a potentially general mechanism of failure (
Dey et al
.).
A total of 6 papers present a detailed study of a particular
area via field instrumentation or discuss the development of
instrumentation for monitoring of slope instability, while a
further 6 papers present an experimental analysis of soil
behavior or a detailed physical model of a particular scenario.
These approaches are important to enable an understanding of
fundamental mechanisms of slope instability and can be very
important to determining the details of complex interactions
between, for example, groundwater and precipitation on
rainfall-induced landslides, or sediment supply and frequency of
debris flows.
Six papers take a risk assessment approach – either for a
defined area for site-specific purposes related to risk assesement
or for a more regional approach that is more appropriate to
concern of risk management.
1.2
Type of instability investigated
Table 2 shows the types of landslide failures that are
discussed in the papers. Approximately 30% of the papers are
on rainfall-induced landslides, 8% on earthquake-induced
landslides (solely) and nearly 30% on debris flows or flow-
Gen ral Report of TC 208
Slope Stability in Engineering Practice
Rapport général du TC 208
La stabilité des talus dans la pratique de l’ingénieur
Bowman E.T.
i r it f Sheffield
Fannin R.J.
University of British Columbia
