Abstract

Landslides are very complex processes controlled by multiple factors. The knowledge and characterization of these factors is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms and kinematics of the instabilities and for an efficient design of corrective measures. The aim of this work is to combine traditional geological and geotechnical techniques with geophysical, remote sensing and forensic techniques for obtaining a whole picture of an active lateral spreading affecting the Finestrat municipality in Alicante, SE Spain. Geomorphological, geotechnical and geophysical techniques (i.e. ground penetrating radar and refraction seismic) have provided essential information about the geometry, structure and petro-physical properties of the slope. A Terrestrial Laser Scanner was used for recognizing the most important sets of discontinuities affecting the rock mass and to evaluate the activity of the landslide slope. Complementarily, a forensic analysis of the building damage completed the available datasets, yielding very useful kinematic information of the landslide. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of the stability of the rock slope has been performed considering both block toppling and block sliding models. Therefore, the multisource analysis performed in this work has allowed the identification and characterization of a complex lateral spreading, highlighting its effectiveness for a comprehensive understanding of this type of landslide.

Highlights

  • Landslides are complex landscape processes controlled by a high number of geometrical, geological and geotechnical factors

  • InSAR allows the measurement of small displacements over wide areas and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) provides three-dimensional topographic information of the slope, providing data of high interest for the study, understanding and subsequent risk mitigation associated to the slope instabilities

  • The LiDAR technique allows obtaining high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) from acquisition distances up to thousands of meters which can be used for the detection and characterization of landslides (e.g. Palenzuela et al 2014, Royán et al 2014), landslide hazard and susceptibility studies (e.g. Ferrero et al 2011, Gorsevski et al 2015), modelling and monitoring of landslides (e.g. Heckmann et al 2012) and rock mass characterization (e.g. Riquelme et al 2014, Riquelme et al 2016, Sturzenegger and Stead, 2009a, b)

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Summary

Introduction

Landslides are complex landscape processes controlled by a high number of geometrical, geological and geotechnical factors. The 60 m3 instability that occurred on this slope in January 2012 was classified as a toppling according to the morphology of the original block and the observable rupture scar (i.e. J1 discontinuity set) after the failure

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