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Assessment and mapping of slope stability based on slope units: A case study in Yan’an, China

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Abstract

Precipitation frequently triggers shallow landslides in the Loess Plateau of Shaanxi, China, resulting in loss of life, damage to gas and oil routes, and destruction of transport infrastructure and farmland. To assess the possibility of shallow landslides at different precipitation levels, a method to draw slope units and steepest slope profiles based on ARCtools and a new method for calculating slope stability are proposed. The methods were implemented in a case study conducted in Yan’an, north-west China. High resolution DEM (Digital Elevation Model) images, soil parameters from in-situ laboratory measurements and maximum depths of precipitation infiltration were used as input parameters in the method. Next, DEM and reverse DEM were employed to map 2146 slope units in the study area, based on which the steepest profiles of the slope units were constructed. Combining analysis of the water content of loess, strength of the sliding surface, its response to precipitation and the infinite slope stability equation, a new equation to calculate infinite slope stability is proposed to assess shallow landslide stability. The slope unit stability was calculated using the equation at 10-, 20-, 50- and 100-year return periods of antecedent effective precipitation. The number of slope units experiencing failure increased in response to increasing effective antecedent rainfall. These results were validated based on the occurrence of landslides in recent decades. Finally, the applicability and limitations of the model are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr Fanyu Zhang, Yazhe Li, Penghui Ma, Liyong Zhang and Dr Di Wu for their contributions and involvement in the field investigations and experiments. We would also like to express our gratitude to the academic and technical staff of the Institute of Geo-hazards Mitigation and Research of Chang’an University and Chen Wenbo from the CEE of the PolyU of HongKong, China. This study was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CB744703), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41572272, 41661134015 and 41130753) and the Central University Founding of the Chang’an University (310826163503). The authors would also like to acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments on the earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geological Engineering and Surveying of Changan University/Key Laboratory of Western Mineral Resources and Geological Engineering, Xi’an, 710054, China

    JIANQI ZHUANG, JIANBING PENG, YONGLONG XU, XINGHUA ZHU & WEI LI

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    JIANQI ZHUANG

  3. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvrionment Protection/Collaborative Innovation Center of Geological Prevention, Chengdu, 610041, China

    JIANQI ZHUANG & QIANG XU

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  1. JIANQI ZHUANG
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  2. JIANBING PENG
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Correspondence to JIANBING PENG.

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Corresponding editor: N V Chalapathi Rao

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ZHUANG, J., PENG, J., XU, Y. et al. Assessment and mapping of slope stability based on slope units: A case study in Yan’an, China. J Earth Syst Sci 125, 1439–1450 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-016-0741-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-016-0741-7

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