Environmental Benign Electrokinetics for Landslide Mitigation

Abstract

Landslide is one of the major geological disasters that pose serious threat to the communities. The use of electrochemical stabilization techniques can provide effective remediation for shallow and intermediate depth landslide failures through cohesive weak soils. It is a promising alternative to conventional remediation measures under situations where regular construction loads might trigger catastrophic landslide failure. Electrokinetic treatment, however, requires a large amount of electricity that is typically produced with a mobile fuel-based generator. The high fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emission lead to undesirable economic and environmental consequences. Renewable energy such as the wind and solar energy provides a promising electricity supply for electrochemical treatment. This paper provides a conceptual analysis on the electrochemical treatment with renewable wind energy. The results show that electrokinetic soil improvements using a renewable generator can be more economical than the traditional generator. It is an environmental friendly option for electrokinetic stabilization of landslide.