Mitigation of seismic damage of river dikes

Abstract

Recent concentration of population and properties to flat low land area is being increased. River dike, though it has a long linear shape, should be evaluated of its seismic performance from a view point of its function, namely flood preventing performance for widely spread hinterland space. It is inevitable to predict the seismically induced deformation of dikes and their locations as much exactly as possible for evaluating seismic performance of dikes. It is considered necessary that not only the residual height of damaged dike, but the deformation mode including crack generation should be properly evaluated against seepage failure. In this paper, it is attempted to study the way for the geotechnical engineering to go in satisfying this requirement from three points; firstly what we should learn from past experiences of seismic damage of river dikes, secondly how to approach from geotechnical engineering to the goal of social requirement, lastly, necessity of new approach in soil mechanics to understand the seismically induced large deformation of soil structure. © 2008 Science Press Beijing and Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Mitigation and Rehabilitation.