Numerical Simulation of Rainfall-induced Xianchi Reservoir Landslide in Yunyang, Chongqing, China

Abstract

A calamitous landslide happened at 22:00 on September 1, 2014 in the Yunyang area of Chongqing City, southwest China, enforcing the evacuation of 508 people and damaging 23 buildings. The landslide volume comprised 1.44 million m³ of material in the source area and 0.4 million m³ of shoveled material. The debris flow runout extended 400 m vertically and 1600 m horizontally. The Xianchi reservoir landslide event has been investigated as follows: (1) samples collected from the main body of landslide were carried out using GCTS ring shear apparatus; (2) the parameters of shear and pore water pressure have been measured; and (3) the post-failure characteristics of landslide have been analyzed using the numerical simulation method. The excess pore-water pressure and erosion in the motion path are considered to be the key reasons for the long-runout motion and the scale-up of landslides, such as that at Xianchi, were caused by the heavy rainfall. The aim of this paper is to acquired numerical parameters and the basic resistance model, which is beneficial to improve simulation accuracy for hazard assessment for similar to potentially dangerous hillslopes in China and elsewhere.