ENHANCING SLOPE STABILITY WITH VEGETATION

Abstract

Landslides can have serious impact on natural and human environment and their prevention and mitigation is of global concern. The ability of a slope to resist a landslide depends on the materials and the properties of which it is composed. This project focuses on the increased landslide resistance of a slope due to vegetation. The properties of the soil-root composite were measured in laboratory and, from these results, calculation and graphically based evaluation was used to determine their qualities for resisting landslide. The results show that vegetation roots had a stabilising effect on the slope, limited to the rooting depth. Knowing the rooting depth (generally between 0.5 and 1.5 m) and dependent on the species, a correlation between the ratio of root weight to soil weight and the slope ability to resist landslide was implied from experimental results and a hypothetical design chart and equation were derived.