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Rainfall infiltration: infinite slope model for landslides triggering by rainstorm

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Abstract

Shallow slope failure due to heavy rainfall during rainstorm and typhoon is common in mountain areas. Among the models used for analyzing the slope stability, the rainwater infiltration model integrated with slope stability model can be an effective way to evaluate the stability of slopes during rainstorm. This paper will propose an integrated Green–Ampt infiltration model and infinite slope stability model for the analysis of shallow type slope failure. To verify the suitability of the proposed model, seven landslide cases occurred in Italy and Hong Kong are adopted in this paper. The results indicate that the proposed model can be used to distinguish failed and not-yet failed slopes. In addition, the proposed model can be used as the first approximation for estimating the occurrence time of a rainfall-induced shallow landslide and its depth of sliding.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and also the Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta for jointly providing grants and scholarship to financially support this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Jl. Lingkar Selatan, Taman Tirto. D.I., Yogyakarta, Indonesia

    Agus Setyo Muntohar

  2. Department of Construction Engineering, College of Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 43 Sec. 4 Keelung Road, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

    Hung-Jiun Liao

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  1. Agus Setyo Muntohar
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  2. Hung-Jiun Liao
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Correspondence to Agus Setyo Muntohar.

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Agus Setyo Muntohar was formerly Postdoctoral Fellow at Department of Construction Engineering, College of Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan

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Muntohar, A.S., Liao, HJ. Rainfall infiltration: infinite slope model for landslides triggering by rainstorm. Nat Hazards 54, 967–984 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-010-9518-5

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