Field Measurements of Soil Water Content at Shallow Depths for Landslide Monitoring

Bovolenta, Rossella; Iacopino, Alessandro; Passalacqua, R.; Federici, Bianca

doi:10.3390/geosciences10100409

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The hysteretic cycles of water content with respect to soil water potential in the unsaturated soil behaviour are highlighted. Many authors recently focused on the same aspect, under the experimental point of view (Tami et al 2004;Yang et al 2012;Rianna et al 2014;Pirone et al 2014;Bovolenta et al 2020;Liang 2020) or by proposing different solutions to model this natural phenomenon (Li 2005;Comegna et al 2016b;Fredlund 2019;Chen et al 2019;Wei et al 2020). Bordoni et al (2017) already investigated how to improve the estimation of complete field SWCCs based on field data acquired at Montuè test site on a time lapse of 5 years (Bordoni et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations on soil-atmosphere interactions after long-term monitoring at two sample sites subjected to shallow landslides

Bordoni

Bittelli

Valentino

et al. 2021

Bull Eng Geol Environ

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Soil-atmosphere interaction has implications in different scientific research contexts and is increasingly investigated through field measurements. This paper reports a detailed description of interaction between shallow soil and atmosphere at two test sites in Oltrepò Pavese area (Northern Italy). The two test sites are in the same climatic area but are characterised by different geological features. In fact, the first objective is to compare the behaviour of two different soils, namely a clayey-sandy silt (CL) and a silty clay (CH), under similar meteorological events. Soil-atmosphere interaction is studied on the basis of long-term (about 87 and 42 months for the two test sites, respectively) monitoring data of both volumetric water content and soil water potential, recorded at different depths along two vertical soil profiles in the first two metres from ground level. Field measurements, together with meteorological data such as precipitation and air temperature, allow for clear identification of the seasonal fluctuations of unsaturated soil hydraulic properties. To infer detailed information, the recorded data were processed and relationships between soil water potential and water content were investigated. Different time spans, from several months to a few days, even including single rainy events, are considered to show the hydraulic soil behaviour. The hysteretic cycles of water content with respect to soil water potential and non-equilibrium flow are highlighted. In particular, the measured soil water potential is in the range of 0–800 kPa and of 0–1500 kPa for the CL and CH soil, respectively. At both sites, the observed hysteretic cycles are more frequent in the hot season (summer) than in the cold season (winter) and tend to reduce with depth. The experimental results are compared with the soil water characteristic curves (SWCCs) to assess whether and to what extent the SWCCs are reliable in modelling the hydraulic behaviour of partially saturated soils, under atmospheric forcing, at least in the considered climatic contexts.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations on soil-atmosphere interactions after long-term monitoring at two sample sites subjected to shallow landslides

Bordoni

Bittelli

Valentino

et al. 2021

Bull Eng Geol Environ

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“…The calibration of soil moisture sensors is very important. Therefore, a soil-specific calibration has to be performed in laboratory, on soil samples taken directly from the study area where the sensors were installed, in order to define the correlation between the raw data and the actual volumetric water content (Bovolenta et al, 2020a).…”

Section: Soil Moisture Monitoring Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This site has been chosen for its well-known landslide susceptibility triggered by rainfall. The monitoring network, currently operational, consists of five measurement nodes (named C1, C2, C3, C4, C5) distributed over the study area, each bearing four soil moisture sensors positioned at different depths (-10, -35, -55 and -85 cm) along a vertical, as detailed in Section 2.1 (Bovolenta et al, 2020a).…”

Section: Application To the Ceriana Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Landslide Susceptibility Assessment: Soil Moisture Monitoring Data Processed by an Automatic Procedure in Gis for 3d Description of the Soil Shear Strength

Viaggio

Iacopino

Bovolenta

et al. 2022

Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.

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Abstract. Slope stability is strongly influenced by soil hydraulic conditions. Considering rain-triggered shallow landslides, the stability can be markedly influenced by the propagation of the saturation front inside the unsaturated zone. Soil shear strength varies in the vadose zone depending on the type of soil and the variations of soil moisture. Monitoring of the unsaturated zone can be done by measuring volumetric water content using low-cost instrumentation, such as capacitive sensors that are easy to manage and provide data in near-real time. For a proper soil moisture assessment a laboratory soil-specific calibration of the sensors is recommended. Knowing the soil water content, the suction parameter can be estimated by a Water Retention Curve (WRC), and consequently the soil shear strength in unsaturated conditions is evaluated. Several models are already proposed for shallow landslide susceptibility evaluation, also in FOSS GIS environment. However, these models do not usually consider the soil shear strength in unsaturated conditions, even if it is crucial, especially in the case of shallow landslides. A procedure that allows the estimate of the soil shear strength starting from soil moisture monitoring data (from sensor networks or satellite-derived map) is here presented. Moreover, preliminary results relative to a case study (i.e. the landslide of Ceriana-Mainardo in Italy) are shown. The proposed procedure could be integrated into existing models for landslide susceptibility assessment and also for the emergency management.

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“…They provide real-time water content profiles in the shallow layers (typically in the upper meter) of the slope. The capacitance sensors (more specifically, WaterScout SM100 sensors, manufactured by Spectrum Technologies, Inc., Plainfield, IL, USA) are appropriately calibrated by laboratory tests in order to define soil-specific calibration curves [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geotechnical Analysis and 3D Fem Modeling of Ville San Pietro (Italy)

Bovolenta

Bianchi

2020

Geosciences

Self Cite

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The paper describes the three-dimensional numerical model of Ville San Pietro, an Italian village subject to slope movements causing damage. The church (dating back to 1776), which is the most significant building of the area, is modelled too. The information from geotechnical and geophysical surveys on field are used to define the model geometry and the soil properties. A finite element code is adopted to simulate the slope behavior in occurrence of water table fluctuations, detected by piezometers, and to evaluate the slope displacements and stability. The validation of the model is carried out using the inclinometer and interferometry measures and by on-site inspections. The model demonstrated a good ability to simulate the slope behavior during the raising and lowering of the water table. The critical areas computed by the numerical code are in good accordance to the actual portions affected by soil displacements and damages. The modelling presented in this paper is crucial for future analyses that will take advantage of an innovative monitoring system, which will be installed on site.

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Field Measurements of Soil Water Content at Shallow Depths for Landslide Monitoring

Cited by 10 publications

References 30 publications

Observations on soil-atmosphere interactions after long-term monitoring at two sample sites subjected to shallow landslides

Observations on soil-atmosphere interactions after long-term monitoring at two sample sites subjected to shallow landslides

Landslide Susceptibility Assessment: Soil Moisture Monitoring Data Processed by an Automatic Procedure in Gis for 3d Description of the Soil Shear Strength

Geotechnical Analysis and 3D Fem Modeling of Ville San Pietro (Italy)

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