A Preliminary Study on the Slope Failure at Highlands in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Cases of landslides occurrences in the time of intense rainfall were reported throughout the years especially at Highlands in Peninsular Malaysia. Infiltration of rainwater caused various moisture content in soil of slope resulted in these landslides. Thus, this study was performed to evaluate the moisture content of residual soil on slope at Kampung Raja, Cameron Highlands. The objectives were to collect and label the soil samples, analyze the moisture content in laboratory, then evaluate them with an existing model. Soil samples were collected at 10 different locations by digging between 0.2 to 0.5 meters deep, placing the soil into plastic containers, and weight them. The containers were labelled with individual number sequence, weight, date, and time of sampling. The coordinates and surrounding temperatures of each samples were also recorded by utilizing software in smartphone i.e., Google Maps and Weather application. By referring to BS 1337: Part 2: 1990, the determination of moisture content was performed using oven-drying method in laboratory. The soil located on a slope at Kampung Raja, Cameron Highlands had moisture content between 24.1% to 38.5% with an average of 27.6%. The results were evaluated with Soil Water Characteristic Curve and was found that the soil had potential risk for future landslide. The results of this study could be used to correlate with the water suction property of the soil.