Machine Learning in the Stochastic Analysis of Slope Stability: A State-of-the-Art Review

Abstract

In traditional slope stability analysis, it is assumed that some “average” or appropriately “conservative” properties operate over the entire region of interest. This kind of deterministic conservative analysis often results in higher costs, and thus, a stochastic analysis considering uncertainty and spatial variability was developed to reduce costs. In the past few decades, machine learning has been greatly developed and extensively used in stochastic slope stability analysis, particularly used as surrogate models to improve computational efficiency. To better summarize the current application of machine learning and future research, this paper reviews 159 studies of supervised learning published in the past 20 years. The achievements of machine learning methods are summarized from two aspects—safety factor prediction and slope stability classification. Four potential research challenges and suggestions are also given.