Effect of Variations in Long-Duration Rainfall Intensity on Unsaturated Slope Stability

Abstract

In recent years, many scientific methods have been used to prove that the Earth's climate is changing. Climate change can affect rainfall patterns, which can in turn affect slope safety. Therefore, this study analyzed the effects of climate change on rainfall patterns from the perspective of rainfall intensity. This analysis was combined with numerical model analysis to examine the rainfall patterns of the Zengwen reservoir catchment area and its effects on slope stability. In this study, the Mann-Kendall test and the Theil-Sen estimator were used to analyze the rainfall records of rainfall stations at Da-Dong-Shan, Ma-To-Shan, and San-Jiao-Nan-Shan. The rainfall intensity of the Zengwen reservoir catchment area showed an increasing trend from 1990-2016. In addition, the analysis results of rainfall intensity trends were used for qualitative analysis of seepage and slope stability. The trend analysis result showed that in the future, from 2017-2100, if the amount of rainfall per hour continues to rise at about 0.1 mm per year, the amount of seepage will increase at the slope surface boundary and significantly change pore water pressure in the soil. As a result, the time of the occurrence of slope instability after the start of rainfall will decrease from 20 to 13 h, and the reduction in the safety coefficient will increase from 32 to 41%. Therefore, to decrease the effects of slope disasters on the safety of the Zengwen reservoir and its surrounding areas, changes in rainfall intensity trends should be considered for slope safety in this region. However, the results of trend analyses were weak and future research is needed using a wider range of precipitation data and detailed hydrological analysis to better predict rainfall pattern variations.

Stability Analysis of Plant-Root-Reinforced Shallow Slopes along Mountainous Road Corridors Based on Numerical Modeling

“…The mechanism through which root-reinforced soil is related to concrete reinforcement mainly plays the role of shear stress and tensile strength effect. The effect of root reinforcement increases the cohesive strength of soil, decreases soil deformation, prevents the incidence of surface tension cracks, and can avoid slope failure initiated by triggering factors [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The shear stress is developed in the soil and transferred to the ground as tensile resistance in the roots, which ensures mechanical reinforcement by the roots [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…Slope failure disasters are an universal occurrence on a planet that, like Earth, is tectonically active [7,[15][16][17]. Slope failure along road corridors is one of the critical problems in the mountainous terrain of Ethiopia.…”

Stability of soil slope in Almaty covered with steel slag under the effect of rainfall

“…SEEP/W, which employs a finite element method for seepage analyses, and SLOPE/W, which is based on the limit equilibrium method for stability analyses, are GeoStudio software products that many researchers commonly use. In the research by Yeh and Tsai 74 , slopes with uniform soil were put through twodimensional transient seepage analyses using the SEEP/W module to see how changes in the amount of rain in www.nature.com/scientificreports/ 2016, 2050, and 2100 would affect the slope's hydrological state. Afterwards, the results of the seepage analyses were input into the SLOPE/W module to compute the slope safety coefficient.…”

Feasibility Investigation of Improving the Modified Green–Ampt Model for Treatment of Horizontal Infiltration in Soil

“…Toro-Guerrero et al [7] pointed out that the evaluation of the soil moisture distribution and its variation are crucial for understanding water movement in landslide dams. Yeh and Tsai [8] found that when the soil moisture content increases in a slope, the effective stress and shear strength distinctly decrease. The reduction of effective stress can lead to the collapse of slopes.…”