Abstract
Landslide events are among natural hazards with many fatalities and financial losses. Studies demonstrate that natural factors such as rainfall and human activities such as deforestation are important causes of triggering a landslide. In this study, an integrated two-dimensional slope stability model, SSHV-2D, is developed that considers various aspects of hydrological effects and vegetation impacts on the stability of slopes. The rainfall infiltration and water uptake of roots change the water content of the unsaturated zone. The temporal and spatial distribution of water content is estimated in the hydrological unit of the developed model. The vegetation unit of the model considers interception loss due to the existence of canopies and trunks, soil reinforcement effect by roots, root water uptake, the impact of root on hydraulic conductivity, and the influence of vegetation weight on slope stability. Benchmark problems with and without vegetation are solved for the model verification. The analyses demonstrate that the consideration of matric suction in the unsaturated zone can increase the safety factor more than 90%. It is also observed that the existence of trees with high density on a slope can increase the factor of safety about 50% and prevent shallow landslides. The present model is a platform for further development of more comprehensive and elaborative slope stability models.
Highlights
Identification and investigation of landslide events due to the lack of slope stability are important due to possible economic losses and fatalities
The soil column has a height of 93.5 cm and a diameter of 6 cm in a plexiglass casing that was equipped with tensiometers
A constant flux q = 13.69 cm/h was applied at the soil surface and a constant water content θ = 0.1 cm3/cm3 was maintained at the bottom of the column
Summary
Identification and investigation of landslide events due to the lack of slope stability are important due to possible economic losses and fatalities. Mentioned that among all the natural phenomena, the landslide has the highest fatalities after drought, hurricane, earthquake, and flood. In addition to direct damages, landslide may create indirect incidents such as floods which are caused by impulsive waves in dam reservoirs or lakes [7]. The slide in the Vajont reservoir in Italy associated with 2500 fatalities is a sample of a landslide-triggered wave [8]. 5% of the total world population lives in the regions with landslide potential [9]. These statistics demonstrate the importance of investigating and modeling landslides
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