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The assessment of rock slope instability along the Khosh-Yeylagh Main Road (Iran) using a systems approach

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Abstract

The slope instability is connected to a large diversity of causative and triggering factors, ranging from inherent geological structure to the environmental conditions. Thus, assessment and prediction of slope failure hazard is a difficult and complex multi-parametric problem. In contrast to the analytic approaches, the systems approaches are able to consider infinite number of affecting parameters and assess the interactions of each couple of the parameters in the system. This paper presents a complete application of the rock engineering systems approach in prediction of the instability potential of rock slopes in 15 stations along a 20 km section of the Khosh-Yeylagh Main Road, Iran as the case study of the research. In this research, the main objective has been defining the principal causative and triggering factors responsible for the manifestation of slope instability phenomena, quantify their interactions, obtain their weighted coefficients, and calculate the slope instability index, which refers to the inherent potential instability of each slope of the examined region. The final results have been mapped to highlight the rock slopes susceptible to instability. Finally, as a preliminary validation on the utilization of systems approach in the study region, the stability of investigated rock slopes were analyzed using an empirical method and the results were compared. The comparisons showed a rather good coincidence between the given classes of two methods.

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Notes

  1. Rock mass rating.

  2. Slope mass rating.

  3. Slope stability probability classification.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the research grant from Shahrood University of Technology. The authors wish to thank for helps and supports provided by the university during the research. Also, the comments received from and the enlightening discussions with our anonymous reviewers improved the paper and are appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mining, Petroleum and Geophysics, Shahrood University of Technology, 3619995161, Shahrood, Iran

    Reza KhaloKakaie & Masoud Zare Naghadehi

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  1. Reza KhaloKakaie
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  2. Masoud Zare Naghadehi
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Correspondence to Masoud Zare Naghadehi.

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KhaloKakaie, R., Zare Naghadehi, M. The assessment of rock slope instability along the Khosh-Yeylagh Main Road (Iran) using a systems approach. Environ Earth Sci 67, 665–682 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1510-1

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