Evaluation of bianloo landslide using cellular automata

Abstract

Cellular Automata (CA) is an effective method for simulating complex natural and artificial systems, which is able to evaluate various processes. For the Purpose of analyzing Bianloo landslide, and to determine its sliding characteristics (height of run-up, sliding surface, length of sliding and movement, and so on), a two dimensional CA model with square shape cells was selected as the analytical tool, together with an algorism pertinent to this approach. Bianloo landslide occurred in 1995 after a heavy rainfall which made it saturated. This landslide is located near a village in Bijar city in kordestan province in Iran. This landslide is predominantly composed of clay and fine sand. For determining mechanical and physical properties of the landslide a back analysis was carried out using Slope/w program, and C,f and ?were estimated 8 kpa, 20° and 18 kn/m3 respectively. For simulation of the landslide by CA, the landslide cross-section was divided to 10 × 10 cells (in meters) and using the selected algorism, the sliding soil of each central cell was distributed to the neighboring cells, and finally, the simulated cross section was determined which is comparable to the true landslide cross-section. The effect of cell dimension was also examined in this study and the appropriate dimensions were proposed. A computer program was prepared for the performing the analysis on the basis of CA method. The results obtained in this analysis showed a very good agreement with the reality. © 2008 Science Press Beijing and Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Mitigation and Rehabilitation.