Abstract
Global climate change has a significant impact on rainfall characteristics, sea water level and groundwater table. Changes in rainfall characteristics may affect stability of slopes and have severe impacts on sustainable urban living. Information on the intensity, frequency and duration of rainfall is often required by geotechnical engineers for performing slope stability analyses. Many seepage analyses are commonly performed using the most extreme rainfall possible which is uneconomical in designing a slope repair or slope failure preventive measure. In this study, the historical rainfall data were analyzed and investigated to understand the characteristics of rainfall in Singapore. The frequency distribution method was used to estimate future rainfall characteristics in Singapore. New intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves for rainfall in Singapore were developed for six different durations (10, 20, 30 min and 1, 2 and 24 h) and six frequencies (2, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years). The new IDF curves were used in the seepage and slope stability analyses to determine the variation of factor of safety of residual soil slopes under different rainfall intensities in Singapore.
Highlights
Climate change has a significant effect on the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time ranging from decades to millions of years
The study by Stern [1] showed that climate change affects many factors, such as, increase in groundwater table, ice melting, ecosystems, intense rainfall, high temperature, strong wind and floods
Previous studies indicated that rainfall events have become more intense in a number of countries, i.e. United States [2], Canada [3], Australia [4], South Africa [5], United Kingdom [6] and Europe [7]
Summary
Climate change has a significant effect on the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time ranging from decades to millions of years. The frequency distribution method (Gumbel method) was used to develop a new IDF curve for rainfall design in Singapore for six different durations (10, 20, 30 min and 1, 2 and 24 h) and six frequency periods (2, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years). The new IDF curve was used in the seepage and slope stability analyses to determine the variation of factor of safety of residual soil slopes under different rainfall intensities in Singapore.
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