This item was submitted to Loughborough's Institutional Repository (https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/) by the author and is made available under the following Creative Commons Licence conditions.For the full text of this licence, please go to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ Dijkstra, T.A. & Dixon, N. (2010). Climate change and slope stability: Challenges and approaches. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 43, 4,[371][372][373][374][375][376][377][378][379][380][381][382][383][384][385] 1 Climate change and slope stability in the UK: Challenges and approaches Dijkstra, T.A. and Warming of the global climate due to anthropogenic influences is well documented and widely accepted (e.g. Hulme et al. 2002;Stainforth et al. 2007;Jenkins et al. 2009;Collins 2007). Ongoing climate change is now 'reasonably foreseeable' (see e.g. Firth and Colley 2006) and any uncertainty associated with the forecasts can no longer be used as an excuse to ignore the problem (e.g. Grossman 2003;Perroy 2006; Metcalf et al. 2009; Willows and Connell 2003). Failure to take account of the potential adverse effects of climate change on the stability of landscapes will carry additional financial risk (ABI 2009, Stern 2007, for example when inappropriate design, operation and maintenance strategies in undulating landscapes and earthworks continue to be applied (Dijkstra and Dixon 2007). Adaptation to forecasted changes in climate conditions is now key and this requires upgrading the knowledge base and slope instability modelling capability (Derbyshire et al. 2001; Dixon et al. , 2008 Glendinning et al. 2008)).This realisation has led to increasing pressures to take action and gain the necessary knowledge that would enable a more effective adaptation to the potentially adverse consequences of climate change, impacting natural and constructed (engineered) slopes and affecting both first-time and reactivated failures. This has been supported by targeted funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the UK for research into the implications of climate change (Building Dijkstra, T.A. & Dixon, N. (2010). Climate change and slope stability: Challenges and approaches. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 43, 4, 371-385. This paper briefly introduces the impacts of slope instability and the context of climate change forecasting. This is followed by a discussion of the current status of the forecasting capability with respect to responses of slope stability to climate change drivers. This discussion is an attempt to capture the outcomes of the workshops and symposium organised as part of the CLIFFS network, It is hoped that the issues raised will serve as an opportunity to engage in further discussions and research efforts that ultimately should lead to better slope instability process models and a more successful integration of these models with climate change forecasts (in particular UKCP09).
Impact of unstable slopes in the UKThe stability of engineered slope...