Optimization Techniques in Slope Stability Analysis Methods

Abstract

The estimation of factor of safety (FoS) or design reliability of slopes is a pre-requisite for an efficient and safe application of landslide mitigation measures for ensuring long-term slope stability. The evaluation of stability of slopes, especially in a hilly region with wide variations in its geological formation is an upfront challenging task for geologists as well as for geotechnical engineers and till date, has been tackled using several optimization algorithms and slope stability analysis methods. The purpose of this book chapter is to present an up-to-date along with an overall review of the slope stability analysis methods which have used different optimization algorithms for deterministic and probabilistic or stochastic evaluation of FoS or reliability index, respectively, including some case studies from published literatures. This review shows that the FoS or reliability of slopes obtained by applying the commonly established analysis methods coupled with optimization algorithms, using both the deterministic and the probabilistic approaches, may vary in their values as well as in their computational effort and errors encountered.