José Antonio Palenzuela

Improvement of the JRC Calculation Using Different Parameters Obtained Through a New Survey Method Applied to Rock Discontinuities

Abstract This paper presents a new, fast and economical method for digitizing a rock surface profile to determine its joint roughness coefficient (JRC) value (Barton and Choubey, Rock Mech Rock Eng 10:1–54, 1977) using a set of existing parameters, the appropriateness of which has been tested. The new procedure was applied to four rock road cuts in the Alpujarra area of Granada province (Andalusia, Spain), supported by 117 digitized profiles. The method avoids any personal subjectivity bias. The usual subjectivity in the visualization and assessment of the JRC value is estimated here by a survey test answered by 90 trained users. The survey test consisted of a set of JRC visual comparisons of 12 roughness profiles, selected from the 117 profiles surveyed during the field research in the Alpujarra region, with the Barton typical profiles. The results of the survey clearly show systematic inaccuracies in the traditional procedure that are reduced if the advice presented in the conclusions of this paper is taken in account when performing the visual estimation.

A multi-method approach for the characterization of landslides in an intramontane basin in the Andes (Loja, Ecuador)

In the last several decades, population growth in the cities of the Andes has caused urban areas to expand into landslide-prone areas. Fatal landslides affecting urban settlements are especially frequent in cities located in the Neogene intramontane basins of the Andes. These basins have similar situations and include geographical and geological features that frequently generate ground instabilities. We studied the characteristics of the mass movements observed in these basins by carrying out a detailed analysis of four landslides that have occurred in the Loja Basin (Ecuador). This multi-method study integrated geophysical, geotechnical methods, mineralogical studies and analyses of precipitation time series. Our study characterizes the slope movements as active, slow-moving, complex earthslide earthflows. According to Differential GPS measurements, these landslides move at velocities of up to several metres per year. Electrical resistivity tomography profiles show that most of the landslides are mainly surficial. Time-series analyses of precipitation reveal that rainfall events that are not exceptionally intensive can reactivate these landslides. This characteristic and the development of these landslides on low-gradient slopes are explained using the results obtained from the geotechnical and mineralogical analyses. We find that the smectite clay minerals detected in the mobilized geological formations, combined with the tropical climate of the northern Andean region, induce the observed weak slope stability conditions. The conceptual model for the studied landslides may aid in assessing landslide-prone areas in Loja and other Neogene intramontane basins of the Andes and can help to mitigate the associated risks.

Urban Landslides at the South of Sierra Nevada and Coastal Areas of the Granada Province (Spain)

The Southern flank of Sierra Nevada and coastal Mediterranean areas of South Spain, in the Andalusian Granada Province, a high number of urban settlements and roads have been affected by landslides and instability problems since the fifties. In this period, a very quick economic development with an intense annual increase of touristic demand gave place to rapid enlargements of formerly small villages, and the widespread land-use change from agricultural to urban not only around the pre-existing urban centres, but also in many new developed lands along the coast for urbanization or leisure services. This Mediterranean coast, in the uplifting section of the Eurasia an African plates, is mainly excavated on metapelites of the Betic Cordillera Internal Zone, showing very inclined if not vertical slopes on Lower Triassic to Paleozoic series of marble, schist, phyliite and quartzite units, very deformed and weathered, so giving place to instability problems which are described in this paper.

Application of Terrestrial Laser Scanner to the Assessment of the Evolution of Diachronic Landslides

During the diachronic evolution of landslides, slope-morphology changes may be detected and assessed by using high-resolution digital models. Slope deformation is detected by scanning sequences over a given time period. This paper presents the results found combining TLS digital models and Global Navigation Satellite Systems in the detection and assessment of reactivations and differential displacements of two slides located at the SW of Sierra Nevada (Spain) between 2008 and 2010. In the first landslide a maximum downward movement of 1.2 m at the top was measured, whereas below the middle part of the mass, 1.3 m of maximum advance was established with a maximum displacement gradient of 1.04 m/year. In the second landslide, downward displacements with gradients between 0.32 m and 0.56 m/year were found, corresponding to rupture movements in incipient to initial stages of evolution. The combined use of TLS and GNSS enabled a quantification and mapping of complementary terrain features which are considered useful in forecasting further activity and slope evolution of these landslides. The high resolution and accuracy of the techniques applied offer broad possibilities in the spatial location of the slope movement and also in forecasting its diachronic activity.

The Calaiza landslide on the coast of Granada (Andalusia, Spain)

The Costa Tropical in Granada Province, in Southern Spain, was intensively developed during the 1980s and 90s. A complex of several residential communities was built on the eastern slope of the coastal Cerro Gordo hill (Almuñécar), on the pre-existing Calaiza landslide. This was not identified in the preliminary technical studies, thus giving rise to a set of incidents associated with this unforeseen unstable slope. To ensure sea views from all the houses, excavations and fillings were carried out, creating a stepped slope, on which the new foundations of structures and roads were located and subsequently damaged by an increasing number of cracks and deformations, leading to 42 houses becoming ruins in the period 2003–2016. Since 1990, annual and monthly rainfall has been variable in the area, and some rainfall peaks were eventually associated with damage proliferation, although more frequently damage was recorded during dry or low rainfall seasons, when water infiltrated from breaks in pipelines. This damage results from a combination of sliding and bad construction practices at increasing rates from dry to humid periods or during heavy rains. An overall perspective of the geotechnical and geomorphological features of the study area, the landslide reactivation, and its correlation with the damage evolution, as well as its legal consequences, is presented here.