Abstract
Plants on a slope can have mechanical, biological and hydrological roles which influence the stability of the slope. In most cases, soil moisture and sub-surface water play a vital role in the stability of a slope. Soil moisture, pore water pressure and the movement of surface and sub-surface water are generally dependent on the characteristics of soils and density of vegetation growing on the slope. In order to investigate the effects of plants on the soil strength, field monitoring of soil moisture and pore water pressure on a slope supported by a vegetative log crib wall was carried out in Lower Austria for a period of about 18 months. The monitoring result shows that the presence of plants stabilizes the soil moisture fluctuations during dry season, increases the soil suction and reduces the pore water pressure during the plant growth season. With the growth of plants, the rate of fluctuations of the soil moisture decreases over time. The rainfall has no significant effects on pore water pressure fluctuations during the active plant growth season.
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Acknowledgements
The support of the Austrian Agency for International Mobility and Cooperation in Education, Science and Research (OeAD), Ebendorferstraße 7, 1010 Vienna, Austria, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria and the EC-funded HORIZON 2020 project Geohazards Risk Assessment, Mitigation and Prevention (GEO-RAMP, No. 645665) are gratefully acknowledged.
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Acharya, M.S. (2019). Role of Plants—Results of Pore Pressure Monitoring in a Slope. In: Wu, W. (eds) Recent Advances in Geotechnical Research. Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89671-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89671-7_1
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