Slope Stability Analysis along NH 1D from Sonamarg to Kargil, J&K, India: Implications for Landslide Risk Reduction

Abstract

The present work attempts to analyze the slope stability of road section along the national highway NH-1D from Sonamarg to Kargil in the erstwhile J&K, India. The rugged and treacherous terrain in this region is prone to frequent slope failures taking heavy toll of life, property and inconveniences to commuters due to disruption of vehicular movement. For slope study analysis twenty facets were chosen for detail based kinematic analysis and Rock Mass Rating (RMR) to identify the causes and types of failure and potential failure directions. The RMR values obtained from the study range from17 to 96, representing very poor to very good rating and the slopes range from completely unstable to completely stable. The kinematic analysis reveals that most joint planes intersect with each other in different directions consequently forming different potential failure modes. The study concludes that the existing slopes require urgent mitigation measures to thwart the failure.

Management of Landslides in a Rural–Urban Transition Zone Using Machine Learning Algorithms—A Case Study of a National Highway (NH-44), India, in the Rugged Himalayan Terrains

“…Further, the soil profile on the slopes of this area is loose naturally; hence, a low intensive rainfall event is enough to trigger a landslide [68]. This is mainly because the mountain characteristics near the study area, which is dominated by weak metamorphic rocks such as lithosole, sedimentary rocks, and semi-consolidated to consolidated sandstones and siltstones, show active weathering processes and liquefaction properties during prolonged precipitation events (Siwalik Himalayan Belt) [91][92][93][94][95]. The weathering and liquefaction properties of the stones deposit a layer of clay and silt material on the slopes [96][97][98][99].…”