Sustainability and resilience analyses in slope stabilisation

Abstract

A number of models, metrics, benchmarks and charts have been developed to assess the sustainability of an engineered system. However, in the majority of these models, the concept of resilience is sequestered from sustainability, which generally focuses on socio-economic impacts and environmental stewardship. This paper attempts to present an approach that balances both sustainability and resilience aspects. To illustrate this, a surficial slope stabilisation research project in which several treatment methods were studied is used as a test platform. Both sustainability and resilience elements are quantified for each treatment method and are attached with appropriate weights based on their relative importance and at the discretion of the engineer. These weighted indicators are subjected to a multi-criteria analysis to designate a cumulative sustainability and resilience index (ICSR) that parametrises the degree of sustainability and resilience in the system. The treatment method with the least ICSR is recommended for final field implementation.