Abstract
The paper deals with a frequent and known problem of suffusion type of sinkhole formation in soil, due to water level oscillations above karstified bedrock. The authors measured groundwater pressure oscillations caused by pumping groundwater from the excavated tunnel to determine the reliable indicators for prediction of sudden soil collapse based on risk assessment. The statistical analysis was performed to determine suspicious values, which reliably predict the soil collapse. The results of analysis of monitored values indicate very good time correlation coefficients with the failures. The work comprises the following main parts: (1) survey of the geologic environment; (2) monitoring of hydrodynamic conditions; and (3) acquisition of a forecasting criterion based on the statistical analysis of anomalous monitoring data. From this research, it might be concluded that the appearance time of sinkholes and the abnormal values were strongly linearly dependent with a correlation coefficient of over 99 %. This conclusion will be a contribution to estimate the risk of karst collapse in a similar environment.
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the Project of the China Geological Survey (the survey and assessment of the karst collapse in Pearl River Delta, No. 1212011220192; the survey and assessment of the karst collapse in Guangxi, No. 1212011220191); the special foundation of public service of land and resources in 2012 (The Key Technologies of the Sinkhole Monitoring and Forecasting, No. 201211083); the Director, Foundation of Institute of Karst Geology (Nos. 2008012, 2009017); the National Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 41272355, 40572164 and 40972231); and the National Science and Technology Support Project (No. 2012BAJ11B04).
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Meng, Y., Ji, F., Jia, L. et al. A new approach for forecasting the appearance of sinkholes near the Jinshazhou tunnel. Environ Earth Sci 71, 3339–3347 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2723-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2723-2