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Evaluation and prediction of slope stability using machine learning approaches

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Abstract

In this paper, the machine learning (ML) model is built for slope stability evaluation and meets the high precision and rapidity requirements in slope engineering. Different ML methods for the factor of safety (FOS) prediction are studied and compared hoping to make the best use of the large variety of existing statistical and ML regression methods collected. The data set of this study includes six characteristics, namely unit weight, cohesion, internal friction angle, slope angle, slope height, and pore water pressure ratio. The whole ML model is primarily divided into data preprocessing, outlier processing, and model evaluation. In the data preprocessing, the duplicated data are first removed, then the outliers are filtered by the LocalOutlierFactor method and finally, the data are standardized. 11 ML methods are evaluated for their ability to learn the FOS based on different input parameter combinations. By analyzing the evaluation indicators R2, MAE, and MSE of these methods, SVM, GBR, and Bagging are considered to be the best regression methods. The performance and reliability of the nonlinear regression method are slightly better than that of the linear regression method. Also, the SVM-poly method is used to analyze the susceptibility of slope parameters.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11972043 and 11902134), Open Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, and Chinese Academy of Sciences (Z019008), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 2020M670077).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Urban Security and Disaster Engineering, Ministry of Education, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Shan Lin, Hong Zheng, Chao Han & Bei Han

  2. School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Linyi University, Linyi, 276000, China

    Wei Li

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  1. Shan Lin
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Correspondence to Bei Han or Wei Li.

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Lin, S., Zheng, H., Han, C. et al. Evaluation and prediction of slope stability using machine learning approaches. Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 15, 821–833 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-021-0742-8

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