Landslide Slope Stability Estimation by The Geotechnical and Geophysical Data

Abstract

Summary Landslides are one of the most dangerous geological processes, they make a threat to all engineering structures. The placement of any structure within the landslide leads to its activation. To design an engineering structures on the landslide slopes, the project’s designers are using the results of a complex engineering surveys, which are necessary for calculating the stability of soil masses, as well as assessing the risks of the development of landslide processes during the construction and operation of the engineering structures. Correct calculation of the landslide slopes stability requires a detailed study of structural features, as well as the research of soil properties within the landslide massif. Although the traditional methods used in engineering and geological surveys are accurate and constantly are being improved, they have one significant drawback - these methods are based on one-dimensional interpretation of drilling data and field methods for studying soils, which does not allow engineering and geological researches of heterogeneous landslide structures with the required detail. Moreover, steep landslide slopes make it difficult to conduct drilling operations, this creates additional difficulties in studying the structural features and identifying weakened zones in the landslide massif. In contrast to 1D methods of researching the slope by drilling wells and field methods of studying the strength properties of soils, modern 2D geophysical technologies allow getting a continuous section of a landslide slope showing the main structural elements of the landslide massif and localising zones of weakened rocks. In order to assess the significance of additional information about the structure of landslides, extracted using geophysical methods, for the value of slope stability, we performed calculations of the stability of the studied landslide slope both on the basis of engineering and geological survey data and taking into account additional geophysical information.