Field monitoring of groundwater responses to heavy rainfalls and the early warning of the Kualiangzi landslide in Sichuan Basin, southwestern China

Abstract

The Kualiangzi landslide was triggered by heavy rainfalls in the “red beds” area of Sichuan Basin in southwestern China. Differing from other bedrock landslides, the movement of the Kualiangzi landslide was controlled by the subvertical cracks and a subhorizontal bedding plane (dip angle < 10°). The ingress of rainwater in the cracks formed a unique groundwater environment in the slope. Field measurement for rainfall, groundwater movement, and slope displacement has been made for the Kualiangzi landslide since 2013. The field monitoring system consists of two rainfall gauges, seven piezometers, five water-level gauges, and two GPS data loggers. The equipments are embedded near a longitudinal section of the landslide, where severe deformation has been observed in the past 3 years. The groundwater responses to four heavy rainfall events were analyzed between June 16 and July 24 in 2013 coincided with the flood season in Sichuan. Results showed that both of the water level and the pore-water pressure increased after each rainfall event with delay in the response time with respect to the precipitation. The maximum time lag reached 35 h occurred in a heavy rainfall event with cumulative precipitation of 127 mm; such lag effect was significantly weakened in the subsequent heavy rainfall events. In each presented rainfall event, longer infiltration period in the bedrock in the upper slope increased the response time of groundwater, compared to that of in the gravels in the lower slope. A translational landslide conceptual model was built for the Kualiangzi landslide, and the time lag was attributed to the gradual formation of the uplift pressure on the slip surface and the softening of soils at the slip surface. Another important observation is the effect on the slope movement which was caused by the water level (H w) in the transverse tension trough developed at the rear edge of the landslide. Significant negative correlation was found for H w and the slope stability factor (F s), in particular for the last two heavy rainfall events, of which the drastic increase of water level caused significant deterioration in the slope stability. The rapid drop (Δ = 22.5 kPa) of pore-water pressure in the deep bedrock within 1 h and the large increase (Δ = 87.3 mm) of surficial displacement were both monitored in the same period. In the end, a four-level early warning system is established through utilizing H w and the displacement rate D r as the warning indicators. When the large deformation occurred in flood season, the habitants at the leading edge of the landslide can be evacuated in time.