Santos, Ace S.

De La Paz, Junny Anne Grace B.

Overview
 Slopes
 Slope Failure / Mass Wasting / Landslide
 Movement of Slopes
 Types of Landslides

 Slope Stability
 Driving Forces

 Resisting Forces

 Safety Factor

 Landslide Prevention
 Slopes
 A surface of which one end is at a higher level than
another (OED)

 Most common landform on Earth

 They might appear stable and static but are

actually dynamic, evolving systems
 Slopes
 generally not uniform in shape but are composed
of segments that are either straight or curved.
 Slopes
 Common Types of Segments

 Free-face / Cliff
 Debris Slope / Talus / Talus Pile / Talus Slope
 Common in Arid Environments

 Convex Slope
 Straight Slope
 Concave Slope
 Common in Humid Environments
 Slope Failure / Mass Wasting
 Slope Failure or Mass Wasting
 Downslope movement of Earth materials
(rocks, soil, debris)
 the deposits of mass wasting are collectively
known as COLLUVIUM

 Landslides
 General term used to describe all mass wasting
 Types of Landslides
 Based on Type of Material, Motion of Slope, Rate of
Movement
 Slope Failure / Mass Wasting
 Main factor of Mass Wasting
 Gravity – pulls materials downslope

 Factors that increase the likelihood of Mass

Wasting:
 Addition of water – increases pore water pressure
 Oversteepening of a slope – reduces stability
 Seismic shaking – adds instability during quake
 Addition of weight to a slope – increases
instability
 Removal of vegetation – vegetation holds soil
together
 Movement of Slopes
 Falls – abrupt movement
of masses materials (that
become separated from
the parent body in steep
slopes and fall freely or
bounce and roll down
under gravity
 Movement of Slopes
 Topples – involve the
forward rotation and
movement of a mass of
rock, earth or debris
out of a slope.
 Movement of Slopes
 Slides – Movement of blocks or masses of material
along a well-defined plane with downslope
movement.
 Movement of Slopes
 Rotational Slide - the surface of rupture is curved
concavely upward, and the movement is caused by
rotation. Also called Slump.
 Movement of Slopes
 Translational Slide - movement of materials
takes place along a more or less flat (planar)
surface

 Block Slide –
translational slide
of a single unit or
few closely related
units as a coherent
mass
 Movement of Slopes
 Spreads - occurs in flat or low relief areas in
saturated soil consisting of loose sediments (sand
and silt) that fail by liquefaction.
 Movement of Slopes
 Flows - movement of masses is like the flow of
fluid plastic in viscous state. Usually as a result of
heavy rain or melting snow.

 Creep – Very slow. Can be recognized from

bending of trees, tilted electric poles, and
retaining walls or fences out of alignment
 Solifluction - creep that occurs in cold
climates or high altitudes where masses of
saturated rock waste move downslope
Movement of Slopes
 Earthflow
 Slow to Rapid; Fine Materials
 caused by heavy rainflow
 large quantity of water increases the
pore water pressure and reduces the shear
strength of the soil deposit
 Slurry of earth or mud with water
 Mudflow
 Rapid to Very Rapid
 Similar to Earthflow but with more fine
materials
Movement of Slopes
 Debris Flow
 most destructive type of landslide
 results after heavy rains or extensive
melting of snow in the source area due to
supersaturation of the ground with water.

 Debris Avalanche – a kind of Debris Flow in

which the movement of material is sudden and
very rapid.
Types of Landslides
Classification of Landslides by Cruden and Varnes (1996)
 Slope Stability
 Slope Stability – based on the interplay between
Driving Forces and Resisting Forces
 Driving Forces – Promote downslope movement
of material
 Resisting Forces – Deter movement

 When driving forces overcome resisting forces, the

slope is unstable and results in mass wasting
 Slope Stability
 Safety Factor – the ratio of resisting forces to
driving forces
𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑠
𝑆𝐹 =
𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑠
If SF > 1 then SAFE
If SF < 1 then UNSAFE
SF = ~1.25 : Acceptable
SF = ~10 : Building design
 Landslide Prevention
 Preventing large, natural landslides is difficult, but
common sense and good engineering practices can
help to minimize the hazard.

 Common engineering techniques for landslide

prevention:
 provisions for surface and subsurface drainage
 removal of unstable slope materials (grading)
 construction of retaining walls or other supporting
structures
 or some combination of these.
 Landslide Prevention
 Drainage Control
 objective is to divert water to keep it
from running across or infiltrating into
the slope.

 Surface Drains
 Drainpipe -
intercept and divert
groundwater
away from a
potentially unstable
slope
Landslide Prevention
 Covering the slope with an impermeable layer (soil-
cement, asphalt, or even plastic)
 Landslide Prevention
 Grading
 material from the upper part (driving) of a
slope is removed and placed near the base
(resisting)
 Landslide Prevention
 Slope Supports / Retaining Structures
 common practice of protecting slope
failures is to provide some kind of a
retaining structure to the slope surface
 References
 Introduction to Environmental Engineering –
Keller, E.
 Engineering Geology – Gangopadnay, S.
 Slope Failure – Hughes, S.
 Engineering Geology – Bell, F.G.
 Slope Processes and Lifeforms – Williams, H.

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respective owners.