Pseudo-Three-Dimensional Back-Analysis of Rainfall-Induced Landslides in Utuado, Puerto Rico
Publication: Geo-Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
Regional slope stability analyses can provide a system-level assessment of landslide susceptibility. This study aims to develop a regional back-analysis model for rainfall-induced landslides to compute ground shear strength that can be used for landslide prediction. Most commonly, mechanistic-based models for regional slope stability consist of simplified one-dimensional (1D) analyses compared to more realistic three-dimensional (3D) procedures. A pseudo-3D methodology is applied on 788 landslides over two 2.5 km2 areas in the plutonic rocks of the Utuado Batholith. First, an infinite slope stability triggering model is applied on a 1 m-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) to identify the triggering grid cells. A spatial 3D projection procedure is then implemented to generate 3D landslides with defined location, area, and volume. Two inversion procedures are considered herein: inversion against landslide area density and inversion against individual landslides. Unlike inversion against landslide area density, inversion against individual landslides generated good match in landslides’ locations and sizes and resulted in lower scatter in regional strength estimates. The average back-calculated cohesion and friction angle were c′ = 1 kPa, ϕ′ = 57° and c′ = 2 kPa, ϕ′= 56° for the first and second study areas, respectively. Inversion against landslides’ volumes in addition to their areas and centroid locations reduced the uncertainty in the triggering depth and modeled shallower landslides, which better matched the mapped landslides.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Bishop, A. W., and Morgenstern, N. (1960). Stability coefficients for earth slopes. Geotechnique, 10(4), 129–153.
Duncan, J. M., Wright, S. G., and Brandon, T. L. (2014). Soil strength and slope stability. John Wiley & Sons.
Gallen, S. F., Clark, M. K., and Godt, J. W. (2015). Coseismic landslides reveal near-surface rock strength in a high-relief, tectonically active setting. Geology, 43(1), 11–14.
Godt, J. W., Baum, R. L., Savage, W. Z., Salciarini, D., Schulz, W. H., and Harp, E. L. (2008). Transient deterministic shallow landslide modeling: requirements for susceptibility and hazard assessments in a GIS framework. Engineering Geology, 102(3-4), 214–226.
Gong, W., Zekkos, D., and Clark, M. (2023). A pseudo-3D methodology for regional-scale back-analysis of earthquake-induced landslides. Engineering Geology, 107277.
Hughes, K. S., Bayouth García, D., Martínez Milian, G. O., Schulz, W. H., and Baum, R. L. (2019). Map of slope-failure locations in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María. US Geological Survey data release. https://doi.org/10.5066/P9BVMD74. (Access date: 07/01/2023).
Hughes, K. S., and Schulz, W. (2020). Map depicting susceptibility to landslides triggered by intense rainfall, Puerto Rico. US Geological Survey.
Schilirò, L., Esposito, C., and Scarascia Mugnozza, G. (2015). Evaluation of shallow landslide-triggering scenarios through a physically based approach: an example of application in the southern Messina area (northeastern Sicily, Italy). Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, 15(9), 2091–2109.
Segoni, S., Piciullo, L., and Gariano, S. L. (2018). A review of the recent literature on rainfall thresholds for landslide occurrence. Landslides, 15(8), 1483–1501.
USGS. (2017). 2015-2016 USGS Puerto Rico lidar: U.S. Geological Survey, accessed May 16, 2020, at ftp://rockyftp.cr.usgs.gov/vdelivery/Datasets/Staged/Elevati-on/OPR/PR_PuertoRico_2015/. (Access date: 07/01/2023).
USGS. (2020). Map data from landslides triggered by Hurricane Maria in four study areas in the Utuado Municipality, Puerto Rico, accessed May 16, 2020, at https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5fb2b87ad34eb413d5e088e2. (Access date: 07/01/2023).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2024
Pages: 579 - 589
History
Published online: Feb 22, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Climates
- Computer models
- Engineering fundamentals
- Environmental engineering
- Failure analysis
- Geohazards
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Landslides
- Material mechanics
- Material properties
- Materials engineering
- Meteorology
- Models (by type)
- Precipitation
- Rainfall
- Shear strength
- Slope stability
- Slopes
- Strength of materials
- Three-dimensional analysis
- Three-dimensional models
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.