Hillslope Hydrology And Stability

Description: Landslides are caused by a failure of the mechanical balance within hillslopes. This balance is governed by two coupled physical processes: hydrological or subsurface flow and stress. The stabilizing strength of hillslope materials depends on effective stress, which is diminished by rainfall. This book presents a cutting-edge quantitative approach to understanding hydro-mechanical processes across variably saturated hillslope environments and to the study and prediction of rainfall-induced landslides. Topics covered include historic synthesis of hillslope geomorphology and hydrology, total and effective stress distributions, critical reviews of shear strength of hillslope materials and different bases for stability analysis. Exercises and homework problems are provided for students to engage with the theory in practice. This is an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers in hydrology, geomorphology, engineering geology, geotechnical engineering and geomechanics and for professionals in the fields of civil and environmental engineering and natural hazard analysis.

Contents: Foreword by Professor Dani Or; Preface; List of symbols; Part I. Introduction and State of the Art: 1. Introduction; 2. Hillslope geomorphology; Part II. Hillslope Hydrology: 3. Steady infiltration; 4. Transient infiltration; Part III. Total and Effective Stress: 5. Total stress in hillslopes; 6. Effective stress in soil; Part IV. Material Properties: 7. Strength of hillslope materials; 8. Hydro-mechanical properties; Part V. Hillslope Stability: 9. Failure surface-based stability analysis; 10. Stress field-based stability analysis; References; Index.

Author Biography: Ning Lu is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado School of Mines and his primary research in the past decade has concentrated on hillslope hydrology and slope stability. He is the senior author of Unsaturated Soil Mechanics (John Wiley and Sons, 2004) and has also published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on unifying effective stress in variably saturated porous media. Professor Lu is a recipient of the Norman Medal and the Croes Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers for his seminal work on defining suction stress in variably saturated soils. Jonathan Godt is a Research Physical Scientist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and has worked on landslide hazard problems for more than fifteen years, both in the US and around the world. His research focuses on monitoring and understanding landslide processes to improve tools for landslide hazard assessment and forecasting. He has published numerous reports, maps and journal articles on the subject of landslide hazards.