Quantifying the volume of potential landslides: A case study

Abstract

For construction sites, the destabilisation of hillsides with ensuing slope failure and landslides presents a major problem. Deforestation and alterations of the steepness of a slope, which lead to its destabilisation, are often direct consequences of a construction activity. Measures for stabilisation of slopes are therefore routinely taken during construction works, all of which are time- and therefore money consuming. Geophysical methods can provide an important insight to the necessary amount of safeguarding measures by quantifying destabilisation hazards. In the case study presented here we investigated hillside stability at potentially hazardous locations on the construction site of the railroad and highway leading from the city of Sochi, Russia to the venues of the Olympic winter games 2014. During a first phase of the survey many geophysical methods have been tested regarding to their ability to estimate the quantities of destabilized material. These methods included seismics, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), ground penetrating radar (GPR) and borehole geophysics. In successive phases the effective methods have been carried out to define locations of destabilized material and to quantify their extent and depth. .