Sustainable Geo-Technologies for Climate Change Adaptation

Table of Contents

1. Frontmatter

2. Landslides and Slope Failures

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 1. Early Warning Practice for Shallow Landslides in Norway and Physical Modelling Strategies Supported by IoT-Based Monitoring

      Emir Ahmet Oguz, Cristian Godoy Leiva, Ivan Depina, Vikas Thakur

      Abstract

      The adverse effect of climate change on society is expected to become more obvious as the number of landslides increases due to climate change. In particular, shallow landslides, are often rainfall-induced and they pose a great risk due to their high frequency and catastrophic consequences. In the conventional strategy to deal with the landslide risk, a great proportion of the budget goes into the response, reconstruction and rehabilitation, while only a small fraction is utilized for assessment and prediction to mitigate the risk. However, with the recent development of sensory technology, new possibilities are opened to monitoring and early warning system (EWS)-based landslide risk management. Additionally, EWS is often the only feasible strategy in managing the landslide risks due to the strategies relying on planning or engineering solutions being too costly or impracticable with respect to the elements at risk. In the EWS strategy, the warning can be based on certain threshold values relating to the triggering variables (e.g. rainfall intensity, displacement), risk estimates (e.g. economic losses) or safety measures (e.g. factor of safety). In this study, the current state of the art of early warning practice for shallow landslides on a regional to national scale in Norway will be discussed. The capacity of physical-based models to improve the existing EWS in Norway will be examined in a case study. In addition, a brief overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the adoption of IoT-based monitoring will be provided to evaluate their capacity to revolutionize the current state of the art of EWS.

   3. Chapter 2. Liquefaction-Induced Flow Failure of Gentle Slopes of Fines—Containing Loose Sands by Case Histories and Laboratory Tests

      Takaji Kokusho, Hemanta Hazarika, Tomohiro Ishizawa, Shin-ichiro Ishibashi, Katsuya Ogo

      Abstract

      In two unprecedented and very similar case histories during recent earthquakes in Hokkaido, liquefied sand strangely flowed underground in very gentle man-made fill slopes of a few percent, leaving large ground depression behind. In both of them, a large amount of non-plastic fines was involved in fine sands that presumably destined the sand highly contractive and flowable on the contractive side of SSL. This particular sand has been tested in undrained triaxial tests, demonstrating that the sand of original grading (F_c ≈ 35%) is far more contractive with strain-softening behavior in the post-peak stage and easier to flow than the sand deprived of fines in the same relative density. This strongly suggests that the high content of non-plastic fines is the major cause of the flow failure observed in Hokkaido. A series of torsional simple shear undrained cyclic tests on contractive sands with fines were addressed to examine liquefaction behavior under different initial shear stresses indicating that the flow failure was confirmed to initiate even in a low gradient slope when the effective stress path comes across a straight line from the origin on the \(\tau \sim \sigma_c^{\prime}\) diagram uniquely defined irrespective of stress paths.

   4. Chapter 3. A Regional-Scale Analysis Based on a Combined Method for Rainfall-Induced Landslides and Debris Flows

      Sangseom Jeong, Moonhyun Hong

      Abstract

      This study describes a prediction method for rainfall-induced landslides (initiation) and subsequently debris flows (propagation) in regional scale areas. Special attention is given to the calculation of the propagation of debris flows by considering rainfall infiltration into soil slopes and soil entrainments by debris flows. The proposed method was verified by comparing the numerical results and the measured ones reported by the previous research. As a result, numerical predictions and observations were quite similar in terms of the front position, the velocity, volume, and momentum of debris flows. Even when applied to natural mountain slope with complicated terrain, numerical results and observations had good agreement with each other. As a result, the proposed combined method for landslides and debris flows overcomes the problem of separating the landslides analysis and the debris flow simulation. Especially, the proposed method can analyze the effects of rainfall on entrainments by debris flows as well as rainfall-induced landslides and the behavior of debris flows.

   5. Chapter 4. Views on Recent Rainfall-Induced Slope Disasters and Floods

      Ikuo Towhata

      Abstract

      Risk of rainfall-induced disaster is universally discussed nowadays because of its possible relation with the global warming and Japan is not an exception. Many rainfall disasters occur in the recent years and it is very important to understand what is happening in nature now. This understanding will then help us foresee what will happen near future. With this viewpoint, the present paper reviews the recent rainfall disasters in Japan. Then the current risk possibly related with global warming/climate change is reviewed with reference to situation in some particular places such as lakes and rivers. Then the history of rainfall-induced disasters since 1945 is reviewed and the relationship between the damage size and intensity of rainfall is examined. This practice leads to a new vulnerability index and its temporal change is studied. This disaster review shows that the rainfall disaster had been decreasing until mid-2010s, after which it increases most likely due to increasing rainfall intensity while vulnerability index is held constant, or even increasing. Finally, the importance of people’s own efforts for safety is stressed and future scopes are presented.

   6. Chapter 5. Appropriate Technology for Landslide and Debris Flow Mitigation in Thailand

      Suttisak Soralump, Shraddha Dhungana

      Abstract

      Landslide causes damage in the property and life of the people. It can be mitigated using various factors, i.e., relocation of population, warning and evacuation, and various structural measures. In Thailand and various ASEAN countries, land ownership and legal hindrances are major issues that have affected the relocation of the population but new laws have been proposed in Thailand to overcome this issue in the future. Multiway warning system has been installed in various parts of Thailand using AP model based on statistical data of rainfall precipitation that had caused landslide in the past. Dynamic landslide hazard mapping along with AP model is used to produce landslide hazard map that can be changed with spatial rainfall data. Furthermore, community-based warning system can be used to estimate the landslide in local communities. The system along with the knowledge of landslide management needs to be transferred to local people.

   7. Chapter 6. Slope Creep Instability in Krajang Lor Village, Magelang Regency, Central Java, Indonesia: Inducement and Developmental Prediction

      Tran Thi Thanh Thuy

      Abstract

      Initiation of shallow soil creep has been occurring in the volcanic soils covering hill slope in Krajang Lor Village, Salaman District, Magelang Regency, Central Java, and Indonesia. Affected area reaches to 9.08 hectare with damages to most of houses in the village. Accumulated creep results in formation of a number of 2–21 mm wide tension cracks observed on the road pavement and ground surface. Geological conditions of the area may be the source of soil creep, confirmed by discovered. In this paper, field works and laboratory experiments were carried out in order to verify geological factors causing soil creep; and a slope stability model based on Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion was developed, in order to evaluate thickness of creep zone and critical slope angle for creep occurrence and logarithmic creep models was developed, in order to predict the development of soil creep displacement. As the results, three main factors causing soil creep are: (1) poor engineering properties of the soil including high water content, low dry density and low shear strength parameters, (2) irreversibly dehydration of hydrated halloysite clay as well as swell-shrink activities of smectite clay, and (3) loadings of about 5 kN/m² as a primary trigger of creep initiation. Creep behavior of soils was significantly affected by the mineralogical compositions, dry density, and water content and stress level. The thickness of creep zone in the research area was 10.368 m and critical slope angles were 41.7° at the toe of the slope; 23.9° at the middle slope and 38.5° at the top of the slope. Soil creep displacement at the soil surface was predicted increasing to approximately 22 mm after 15 years and 23 mm after 60 years.

   8. Chapter 7. Application and Feedback Analysis of the Freeway Slope Maintenance Management System in Taiwan

      San-Shyan Lin, Wen-I Wu, Tsai-Ming Yu, Chia-Yun Wei, Lee-Ping Shi, Jen-Cheng Liao

      Abstract

      After the incident of the slope failure at 3.1 k of the Freeway No.3 in 2010, to ensure the slopes along the freeway stay stable and adapt to different environmental conditions, the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau adopts a life-cycle maintenance system for managing the freeway slopes to ensure safety for the freeway users at all time. The management system uses a collected database and information system to manage the design data, implement multiple small maintenance projects, shorten application time, and minimize road traffic maintenance measures. The system also saves maintenance costs and extends the service life of the slopes. This paper reports the design concepts and features of the application of life-cycle maintenance here in Taiwan. Discussions on the study results of slope grading, the statistical information on facility maintenance history, the degradation condition of the ground anchors after study, and the current condition of each slope after analysis are also presented in the paper. A case example is presented to demonstrate how the developed system worked for the slopes along the freeway in Taiwan.

3. Characterization of Geo-Materials

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 8. Chemical and Mechanical Properties of Geopolymers Made of Industrial By-Products Such as Fly Ash, Steel Slags and Garbage Melting Furnace Slags

      Tatsuya Koumoto

      Abstract

      Geopolymers are composite hard materials made by mixing solid (binders such as fly ash and slag) and alkaline liquid (activators such as NaOH and sodium silicate). Geopolymers have recently been developed to be used as a replacement for Portland cement concrete. Industrial by-products such as fly ash, steel making slags and garbage melting furnace slags can be used to create geopolymers in a process that emits less carbon dioxide than in the cement making process. This reduction in CO₂ emission is important because CO₂ is one of the substances known to contribute to global warming. In the future, further uses of these fly ash and slags must be explored. The chemical mechanism for hardening composite materials by mixing aluminosilicate binders, such as fly ash and slags with alkaline activators, such as liquid NaOH and sodium silicate, is known as a geopolymer reaction. The development of high compressive strength geopolymer using fly ash and slags will strongly contribute to the fields of construction, geotechnical engineering, and architecture. This paper describes the chemical and mechanical characteristics of geopolymers made of industrial by-products as binders mixing with a solution of NaOH and sodium silicate as activators.

   3. Chapter 9. Characteristics of Re-liquefaction Behaviors of the Typical Soils in the Aso Area of Kumamoto, Japan

      Guojun Liu, Noriyuki Yasufuku, Ryohei Ishikura, Qiang Liu

      Abstract

      The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes induced soil liquefaction in vast areas, owing to the special geological conditions near the Aso Volcano. The soil liquefaction resulted in significant damage to the foundations of residential buildings, infrastructure, and landslides. Several investigations indicated the disaster was greatly expended, including the affected areas, and severity after the second shock. The objective of this study is to clarify the liquefaction characteristics of the local soils under two great shocks within the earthquakes. Therefore, the volcanic soil, and the soil from the sand boil site, selected as the two typical materials, were tested by a tri-axial compression test system. The re-liquefaction performances were investigated and analyzed in this study. The results indicated that the natural volcanic soil in the local was considered as an un-liquefiable soil. The soils from the sand boil site presented a liquefiable feature, similar to fine sand in the tests. Furthermore, the fine particles played a dominant role in liquefaction characteristics, in both the soils from the sand boil site and the volcanic soil.

4. Sustainable Development for Infrastructures

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 10. Sustainable Transport Infrastructure Adopting Energy-Absorbing Waste Materials

      Buddhima Indraratna, Yujie Qi, Trung Ngo

      Abstract

      Ballasted rail tracks are the most common type of transportation infrastructure. However, ballast progressively degrades under dynamic loads and impact loads. The degree of degradation will be accelerated due to the increasing demand for higher-speed passenger trains and heavier axle load freight transportation. It is therefore those novel technical methods are adopted to enhance track conditions. Over the past two decades, many studies have been conducted by the researchers of Transport Research Centre (TRC) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to investigate the ability of recycled rubber mats/pads, as well as waste tyre cells and granulated rubber to improve the stability and longevity of rail track. This paper presents an overview of these novel methods and materials used in recent studies based on large scale laboratory tests (i.e. cubical triaxial tests and drop hammer impact tests) and numerical modelling. Moreover, in an effort to put theory into practice, the performance of under ballast shock mats placed at ballast-bridge deck interfaces has been investigated in field tests carried out at Singleton (near Newcastle, Australia). The test results and the numerical modelling show that rubber inclusions will greatly improve overall track performance.

   3. Chapter 11. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: A Tool for Civil Engineering Research Prioritization and Project Decision Making

      Alena J. Raymond, Jason T. DeJong, Alissa Kendall

      Abstract

      Sustainability and issues related to sustainability (e.g., climate change, depletion of natural resources, and other environmental and ecological hazards) are emerging concerns in the civil engineering profession. Civil engineers have an opportunity and responsibility to contribute to the solutions of these global problems given that civil infrastructure projects consume large quantities of energy and resources and can have significant impacts on the environment. This paper describes an integrated life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) approach that was developed to evaluate the impacts of civil engineering technologies and inform decision making in academic research and professional practice toward more sustainable solutions. The developed methodology provides a more holistic approach compared to current project decision making, which is driven primarily by minimizing cost while satisfying safety and performance criteria. Through an example focusing on liquefaction mitigation strategies, this paper demonstrates how the developed LCSA tool can be applied to existing and incipient technologies to make comparisons and provide sustainability-oriented guidance on future research and development efforts.

   4. Chapter 12. Role of the Indonesian Society for Geotechnical Engineering in the Development of Sustainable Earthquake-Resilience Infrastructure in the Recent Years

      Arifan Jaya Syahbana, Masyhur Irsyam, Delfebriyadi Delfebriyadi, Mahdi Ibrahim Tanjung, Rena Misliniyati, Mohamad Ridwan, Fahmi Aldiamar, Nuraini Rahma Hanifa, Arifin Beddu, Agus Himawan

      Abstract

      Indonesia has become one of the countries in the Southeast Asia region that has experienced several devastating large earthquakes, tsunami, and liquefaction induced lateral spreading for the past 15 years. Those natural disasters caused more than 140.000 casualties and damages to public infrastructure, i.e., building, roads, bridges, and housing. In order to increase the resistance against earthquake, the Government of Indonesia under the Ministry of Public Works supported by the Indonesian Society for Geotechnical Engineering (ISGE) to developed Seismic Design National Standard/Mandatory Code for Building and Non-Building, Bridge, and Dam also to established Nalodo Research Center. In line with it, continuous updates on seismic hazard source, relocated seismic catalog, seismic hazard map, ground motion collection, and research on attenuation function are conducted to identify the mechanism of seismic activities around all Indonesia, fully understand the mechanism of each source model to meet the latest state of the art on seismic hazard analysis and harmonized with the latest seismic code abroad which comply the similarity with Indonesia condition. Based on latest evaluation on Palu earthquake, a seismic hazard analysis to Jakarta and Bandung as big cities in Indonesia included basin effect and risk analysis for conventional bridges, development of technical guideline which accommodate those subjects are urgently needed to strengthening designer and practitioners that deal with design and construction of Indonesia infrastructures. Previous mistakes and uncertainties should be treated as a lesson to learn to increase knowledge and fully understand what we are dealing with. Furthermore, developing an effective solution to make Indonesia infrastructure more resilient against natural disasters and more sustainable concerning earthquakes.

5. Adaptation to Climate Change-Induced Hazards

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 13. Climate Change-Induced Geotechnical Hazards in Asia: Impacts, Assessments, and Responses

      Kazuya Yasuhara, Dennes T. Bergado

      Abstract

      Climate change occurring concomitantly with global warming is expected to affect human life in many respects. One important effect is that climate change is expected to present unanticipated hazards related to natural disasters and changing environments, sometimes called “extreme events.” The scale, intensity, and frequency of natural disasters have been increasing continuously. The increasing frequency and scale of natural disasters are apparently concentrated in Asia-Pacific regions. Examples of disasters of this category include torrential rainfall induced shallow and deep slope failure, flooding, riverbank erosion, and destruction of roads and railways as well as damage to coastal structures triggered by severe typhoons and intensifying inundation. As an activity to alleviate unfortunate situations for which achievements have scarcely been described in earlier Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change reports, ATC 1 was proposed to use the skills of geotechnical engineers dealing with the protection and mitigation of geo-disasters and geo-environmental impacts in their professional work and research. Confronting these disasters with resiliency and concrete measures is a responsibility of our geotechnical engineering society, particularly of the Asian branch of ISSMGE. This paper describes new findings and knowledge learned through ATC 1 Committee activities and achievements.

   3. Chapter 14. Effect of Vessel Waves on Riverbank Erosion: A Case Study of Mekong Riverbanks, Southern Vietnam

      Tran The Le Dien, Huynh Trung Tin, Bui Trong Vinh, Trang Nguyen Dang Khoa, Ta Duc Thinh

      Abstract

      The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of vessel waves on the erosion process of Hau river, one of the Mekong River branches, in Southern Vietnam. The authors have identified the potential impacts of vessel waves on the riverbank stability using the in situ measurements and CCTV (closed-circuit television). It is shown that vessel wave height greater than 0.3 m contributed to 12.11% total of recorded waves leading to erosion. These waves attacked the bank with high applied shear stresses and caused surface erosion. The natural conditions such as bank materials, moisture content, weathering process, and bankslope are also impacted on the bank stability triggered by vessel waves.

   4. Chapter 15. Sustainability and Disaster Mitigation Through Cascaded Recycling of Waste Tires—Climate Change Adaptation from Geotechnical Perspectives

      Hemanta Hazarika, Yutao Hu, Chunrui Hao, Gopal Santana Phani Madabhushi, Stuart Kenneth Haigh, Yusaku Isobe

      Abstract

      For long-term sustainability, different stakeholders with similar needs must come together and make concerted efforts to realize a recycling economy by actively promoting the recycling of industrial by-products or waste. This paper outlines some of the studies on the successful use of by-products/waste from other sectors in geotechnical engineering, with a focus on utilizing it in geo-disaster mitigation and related characteristics. Waste tire recycling and disaster mitigation are discussed in the light of Japanese experiences, as well as a new disaster reduction strategy developed in Japan using tire-derived materials. This paper introduces some experimental studies on geotechnically connected utilization of geosynthetics that center on tire-derived materials like tire chips and tire shreds. The 1 g shaking table test, one-dimensional compression and permeability test, large-scale triaxial compression and permeability test related to liquefaction-resistant characteristics, stiffness, and permeability of tire-derived materials are introduced here. These experimental results may prove to be helpful for more sustainable engineering design.