Application of Critical Rainfall Curve to Rainfall and Snowmelt induced Embankment Slope Collapse

In this study, the collapse risk of two test embankments under different degrees of compaction was evaluated based on the critical rainfall curve when the embankment slope failure owing to record rainfall. In addition, it was verified whether the critical rainfall curve can evaluate the slope failure during the snowmelt season by considering the snowmelt water calculated from the snow depth as rainfall. Regarding the low-density embankment, the amount of rainfall at the time of collapse reached the dangerous region of the critical rainfall curve, and the result agreed with the realization phenomenon. In the high-density embankment, it was difficult to evaluate the collapse because the critical rainfall curve was not applied to the gully erosion. When the critical rainfall curve is used to evaluate the risk of slope failure, the snow surface lowering method using sunshine time can determine the slope failure more safely than other snowmelt calculation methods.