2018/2019

2019/2020

DM270

GEO/05 (APPLIED GEOLOGY)

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Territoriale

2°

2nd semester (02/03/2020 - 12/06/2020)

6

58 lesson hours

English

ORAL TEST

MEISINA CLAUDIA (titolare) - 3 ECTS
BORDONI MASSIMILIANO - 3 ECTS

Basic knowledge of engineering geology.

The course aims to furnish the knowledge of the main typologies of landslides, the types of tools and methods for their analysis and monitoring, the methodologies for the assessment of hazard and risk. Since the course planning mainly practical, practice exercises are carried out, aiming to give the students the required tools for the detection of the different types of landslides, for the analysis of monitoring data, for the identification of the triggering moments of slope instabilities, for the assessment of the susceptibility, the hazard and the risk towards landslides at slope scale or at territorial scale, the choice of the most adequate consolidation works of unstable slopes. Moreover, practical field excursions occur in some test-sites affected in past by significant landslides triggering events, in order to present the different perspectives for the characterization of the landslides, for their monitoring, for the assessment of hazard and risk. Moreover, the course is inserted in the frame of the topics of the sustainability, as defined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular in the following goals: Goal #4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all; Goal #13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Landslide terminologies and types, classifications. Landslide dynamics. Predisposing and triggering factors, landslide occurrence as a consequence of land use and climate changes. Methodologies of landslide investigation and mapping, landslide inventories.
Landslide monitoring and early warning: ground-based and remote surface displacements measurement techniques, monitoring of hydro-meteorological variables. Rainfall threshold for landslide prediction. Landslide mitigation: structural and non-structural protection, approaches following the sustainable development as promoted by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Lesson learnt from some case histories.
Deterministic methods for the evaluation of the landslides susceptibility and hazard: yield criterion of the materials, slope safety factor, limit equilibrium analysis, stability charts, methods of slices, physically-based models
Probabilistic methods for the evaluation of the landslides susceptibility and hazard: uncertainties in the computation of slope safety factor, probabilistic methodologies
Numerical methods for the evaluation of landslides susceptibility and hazard: continuum methods, non-continuum methods, shear strength reduction method, concept of local safety factor
Knowledge-driven and data-driven methods for the evaluation of landslides susceptibility and hazard
Methodologies for the assessment of the model reliability and its validation
Landslides risk analysis: basic concepts of landslides risk, estimation of risk, landslides risk management, landslides risk mitigation in the frame of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The course consists of lectures to illustrate the theory and tutorial sessions where the emphasis is on applications and problem solving. Each subject is illustrated with the support of experimental and observational evidences and well-documented case histories concerning landslide inventory, monitoring, the mitigation works and the methods for the assessment of landslides susceptibility and hazard drawn from the experience of the instructors.

N. Lu, J.W. Godt. Hillslope hydrology and stability. Cambridge University Press..
Lynn M. Highland, United States Geological Survey, and Peter Bobrowsky, Geological Survey of Canada (2008). The Landslide Handbook—A Guide to Understanding Landslides. USGS Circular 1325. Reference textbook.
Landslides: Investigation and Mitigation : Special Report 247 (Special Report (National Research Council (U S) Transportation Research Board)) by A. Keith Turner (Editor), Robert L. Schuster (Editor). Reference textbook.
Thomas Glade, Malcolm Anderson, Michael J. Crozier (2005). Landslide Hazard and Risk. John Wiley & Sons, 15 apr 2005 - 802 pagine. Reference textbook.
Course notes, scientific articles and other material will be provided during the course.

Assignments will be handed over and graded during the course. The final examination will consist of a 3 hours, written test. The final-exam format is closed-book. Grading: 40% assignments, 60% final exam.