Abstract
Rockfall protection is a major issue in areas exposed to severe rockfall hazard. The design of structural countermeasures, usually required to ensure such protection, needs careful evaluation of rockfall trajectories, distribution and intensity of impacts, and magnitude and variability of involved dynamic quantities. Protection against rockfalls from high rock walls is especially difficult, due to the widespread occurrence of rockfall sources, the spatial variability of block volumes and rockfall trajectories, and the high involved kinetic energies. In these cases, complex design and construction issues related to massive countermeasures must be addressed. We show the potential of 3D rockfall modelling to support challenging countermeasure design by discussing a case study in the Southern Alps (Italy). Here subvertical limestone cliffs up to 600 m high impend on a narrow strip of flat land, with potentially unstable individual block volumes ranging between 0.5 and 15 m3. Slope benching and a massive embankment were designed to protect a sector of this area. We explicitly integrated countermeasure design geometry into a HRDEM, calibrated modelling parameters by the back analysis of previous rockfalls, and performed predictive simulations considering different block size scenarios. Countermeasure design was verified according to the spatial pattern, heights and overpassing probabilities of expected trajectories. Design optimisation scenarios including additional flexible barriers were also evaluated. Finally we discuss the advantages and requirements of 3D for design support applications.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Agliardi F, Crosta GB (2003) High resolution three-dimensional numerical modelling of rockfalls. Int J Rock Mech Mining Sci 40:455–471
Agliardi F, Crosta GB, Frattini P (2009) Integrating rockfall risk assessment and countermeasure design by 3-D modeling techniques. Nat Hazard Earth Syst Sci 9:1059–1073
Crosta GB, Agliardi F, Frattini P, Imposimato S (2004) A three dimensional hybrid numerical model for rockfall simulation. Geophys Res Abstracts 6:04502
di Prisco C, Vecchiotti M (2006) A rheological model for the description of boulder impacts on granular strata. Geotechnique 56:469–482
Frattini P, Crosta GB, Carrara A, Agliardi F (2008) Assessment of rockfall susceptibility by integrating statistical and physically based approaches. Geomorphology 94:419–437
Frattini P, Crosta GB, Agliardi F (2012) Rockfall characterisation and modeling. In: Clague JJ, Stead D (eds) Landslides: types, mechanisms and modeling. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 267–281
Lambert S, Bourrier F (2013) Design of rockfall protection -embankments: a review. Eng Geol 154:77–88
Lambert S, Bourrier F, Toe D (2013) Improving three-dimensional rockfall trajectory simulation codes for assessing the efficiency of protective embankments. Int J Rock Mech MiningSci 60:26–36
Volkwein A, Schellenberg K, Labiouse V, Agliardi F, Berger F, Bourrier F, Dorren LKA, Gerber W, Jaboyedoff M (2011) Rockfall characterization and structural protection—a review. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 11:2617–2651
Acknowledgments
We thank the municipality of Valmadrera for logistic support and Mr. Pensa and Dr E. De Maron for providing TLS and design data. Research was supported by a contract with the Municipality of Valmadrera and partly by PRIN 2010–11 program (2010E89BPY_007).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Agliardi, F., Crosta, G.B. (2014). Supporting Rockfall Countermeasure Design in Difficult Conditions. In: Sassa, K., Canuti, P., Yin, Y. (eds) Landslide Science for a Safer Geoenvironment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04996-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04996-0_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-04995-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-04996-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)