The assessment of landslide risk from natural slopes in Hong Kong: an engineering geological perspective

Abstract

Abstract Studies of potential landslide risk from natural slopes are an increasing component of geotechnical engineering practice in Hong Kong as limited land results in building and infrastructure projects being located closer to steep natural hillsides. Such studies require appropriate levels of engineering geological input to help establish applicable hazard models, which form the basic framework for landslide hazard and subsequent risk assessment. As development of realistic hazard models and related tasks (e.g. design event selection, magnitude–frequency analysis) are not easy to define or codify because of their wide scope and partially implicit nature, the work requires considerable engineering geological expertise. The paper outlines the geological and geomorphological setting of Hong Kong, presents the current guidance for the assessment of landslide risk from natural slopes and discusses, with examples, the valuable input engineering geology makes in assessing the risk.