Reliability-based slope stability investigations under changing boundary conditions

 

Sponsor:	self-financed
Resonsible:	Andra Ebener, M.Sc.

 

Brief description:

The consequences of climate change are multifaceted and cannot always be described directly. Direct consequences such as persistent droughts or an accumulation of heavy rainfall events lead to other indirect effects. For example, past droughts have caused forest soils to dry out and groundwater levels to drop. The decreased availability of water in the soil has weakened large areas of forest, trees have become susceptible to pests, and large-scale deforestation of diseased tree stands has resulted. Now that many forests have been deforested, new boundary conditions are emerging, and their consequences and risks must be assessed. One possible consequence of clear-cutting and the resulting death of root stocks in the soil may be an increased risk from landslides. The now missing tree cover possibly leads to serious changes in soil properties. Especially in (formerly) heavily forested areas with steep slopes, the altered soil properties and impacts may affect the stability of the slopes. In addition, it can be assumed that climatic changes will continue and that all influencing factors acting on a slope system will also be subject to change over time.

In this PhD project, in addition to relevant soil mechanical parameters, other variable boundary conditions and uncertainties such as meteorological influences as well as vegetation will be implemented into the reliability-based investigation of slope stability. On this basis, possible interactions between the various influencing factors will then be analyzed.