Abstract
Abstract. Rockfall is an extremely rapid process involving long travel distances. Due to these features, when an event occurs, the ability to take evasive action is practically zero and, thus, the risk of injury or loss of life is high. Damage to buildings and infrastructure is quite likely. In many cases, therefore, suitable protection measures are necessary. This contribution provides an overview of previous and current research on the main topics related to rockfall. It covers the onset of rockfall and runout modelling approaches, as well as hazard zoning and protection measures. It is the aim of this article to provide an in-depth knowledge base for researchers and practitioners involved in projects dealing with the rockfall protection of infrastructures, who may work in the fields of civil or environmental engineering, risk and safety, the earth and natural sciences.
Highlights
Rockfall is a natural hazard that – compared to other hazards – usually impacts only small areas
With the increasing availability of digital elevation models (DEM; Wentworth et al, 1987; Wagner et al, 1988) and of geographic information systems (GIS), several other techniques have been explored (Van Westen, 2004). This can be refined conceptually because a slope system can be described in terms of internal parameters (IP) and external factors (EF), which provide a conceptual framework to describe the instability potential using the available data (Fig. 5)
The attempt to extract information such as Geological Strength Index (GSI) from LiDAR DEM is still utopian (Sturzenegger et al, 2007b), but we can expect future generations of terrestrial LiDAR to allow the extraction of such information
Summary
Rockfall is a natural hazard that – compared to other hazards – usually impacts only small areas. When a rockfall hazard or risk analysis (including the protective effect of forests) reveals a threat to people, buildings or infrastructures For proper design and dimensioning of the measures, it is essential to know the magnitude of the impact loads and the performance of the structures This knowledge can be obtained from rockfall onset susceptibility/ hazard analysis, numerical simulations, experiments, models or existing guidelines, and provides guidance on the design of roof galleries, fences, embankments and forests as a natural protection system. Subsequent trajectory analyses determine the areas that have to be protected by measures To account for their high sensitivity to just small changes in the landscape, such as bedrock, dead wood, small dips, etc., stochastic analyses are usually performed, preferably including an evaluation of the accuracy of the results. Risk analysis is needed to assess the consequences of expected rockfall events and evaluate both the technical suitability and the cost-effectiveness of different mitigation options (Corominas et al, 2005; Straub and Schubert, 2008)
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