• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.197-205
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• 2016

Rainfall-induced landslide disaster case histories are typically required to establish critical lines based on the decrease coefficient for judging the likelihood of slope collapse or failure; however, reliably setting critical lines is difficult because the number of nationwide disaster case histories is insufficient and not well distributed across the region. In this study, we propose a method for setting the critical area to judge the risk of slope collapse without disaster case history information. Past 10 years rainfall data based on decrease coefficient are plotted as points, and a reference line is established by connecting the outermost points. When realtime working rainfall cross the reference line, warning system is operating and this system can be utilized nationwide through setting of reference line for each AWS (Automatic Weather Station). Warnings were effectively predicted at 10 of the sites, and warnings could have been issued 30 min prior to the landslide movement at eight of the sites. These results indicate a reliability of about 67%. To more fully utilize this model, it is necessary to establish nationwide rainfall databases and conduct further studies to develop regional critical areas for landslide disaster prevention.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.475-487
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• 2017

We performed landslide flume tests to analyze characteristics of landslide occurrence and change in the ground materials due to rainfall infiltration. The test apparatus is composed of flume, rainfall simulator, and measurement sensors and landslides were triggered by heavy rainfall (Intensity=200 mm/hr) sprinkled at the above of an artificial slope. The measurement sensors for matric suction and volumetric water content were installed with 3 sets at shallow (GL-0.2 m), middle (GL-0.4 m), and deep depth (GL-0.6 m) in the slope and the tests were performed with in-situ, loose, and dense condition of each weathered soils of granite, gneiss, and mudstone. The analyses show that surface erosion was dominant in initial time of the test due to heavy rainfall and then landslides occur following locally happened transverse tension cracks. The characteristics of landslide were both shallow failure because of a spread of wetting front induced by the rainfall infiltration and retrogressive failure. While the matric suction was decreased rapidly without any precursor in the soil saturation, the volumetric water content was increased gradually, reached its maximum value, and then decreased rapidly with landslide.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.11-24
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• 2013

This study presents a design method for typical rainfall-induced landslide considering in-situ matric suction. Actual landslide data are used to validate the proposed method. The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and unsaturated permeability are experimentally determined to estimate hydraulic properties of testing site. The field measurement of matric suction is carried out to monitor in-situ matric suction in a natural slope subjected to rainfall infiltration, which is incorporated in the landslide analysis. The wetting band depth and safety factor of the slope are assessed to clarify the effect of domestic rainfall pattern. Especially, the effect of antecedent rainfall on the slope stability is investigated and discussed in terms of wetting band depth using parametric study. It is found from the result of this study that proposed design method can consider the characteristic of unsaturated soil and effect of antecedent rainfall. The location of the scarp zone is fairly well predicted by proposed design method. Moreover, heavy rainfall, concentrated in the backward part with time, causes the lowest safety factor of the slope. These results demonstrate that decrease in matric suction due to antecedent rainfall may trigger slope instability. After the antecedent rainfall, additional rainfall may cause the slope failure due to increasing wetting band depth.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1101-1106
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• 2004

Rainfall induced landslides are disasters causing sever damage on the human life and the infrastructures. In this paper, a simplified procedure to evaluate the slope stability problems induced by rainfall by modifying the Iverson's pressure head dispersion model. The proposed approach extends the applicability of the Iverson's model in to the cases of higher rainfall intensity than the permeability of the soil by incorporating the existence of overland flow. In addition, the Manning equation is applied to calculated the depth of overland flow. From the calculated depth of overland flow, shear stress acting on the surface is included for the driving component triggering the landslides. From the analysis of a case study, the long term rainfall alters the stability of slope.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.61-89
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• 2020

The objective of this study is to characterize landslide susceptibility depending on various geo-environmental variables as well as to compare the Frequency Ratio (FR) and Evidential Belief Function (EBF) methods for landslide susceptibility analysis of rainfall-induced landslides. In 2013, a total of 259 landslides occurred in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, South Korea, due to heavy rainfall events with a total cumulative rainfall of 296~721mm in 106~231 hours duration. Landslides data were mapped with better accuracy using the geographic information system (ArcGIS 10.6 version) based on the historic landslide records in Chuncheon from the National Disaster Management System (NDMS), the 2013 landslide investigation report, orthographic images, and aerial photographs. Then the landslides were randomly split into a testing dataset (70%; 181 landslides) and validation dataset (30%; 78 landslides). First, geo-environmental variables were analyzed by using FR and EBF functions for the full data. The most significant factors related to landslides were altitude (100~200m), slope (15~25°), concave plan curvature, high SPI, young timber age, loose timber density, small timber diameter, artificial forests, coniferous forests, soil depth (50~100cm), very well-drained area, sandy loam soil and so on. Second, the landslide susceptibility index was calculated by using selected geo-environmental variables. The model fit and prediction performance were evaluated using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve and the Area Under Curve (AUC) methods. The AUC values of both model fit and prediction performance were 80.5% and 76.3% for FR and 76.6% and 74.9% for EBF respectively. However, the landslide susceptibility index, with classes of 'very high' and 'high', was detected by 73.1% of landslides in the EBF model rather than the FR model (66.7%). Therefore, the EBF can be a promising method for spatial prediction of landslide occurrence, while the FR is still a powerful method for the landslide susceptibility mapping.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.375-380
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• 2005

In Korea, most landslides are occurred during the rainy season from June to September and have a shallow failure plane parallel to the slope. For these types of rainfall-induced failures, the most important factors triggering slope unstability is not the increase of pore water pressure but the decrease of the matric suction of unsaturated soils by rainfall infiltration. So it is essential to landslide hazard assessment that defines the characteristics of infiltration in natural slopes. In this study, field measurements have been carried out in order to monitor in-situ volumetric water contents and ground water table, at several depths and locations on a natural slope. The results show that rainfall infiltration is correlated with antecedent water contents, rainfall intensity and total rainfall. The ground water table was varied sensitively by every rainfall event.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2007

In Korea, most landslides occurr during the rainy season and have shallow failure planes parallel to the slope. For these types of rainfall-induced failures, the most important factor triggering slope unstability is decrease in the matric suction of unsaturated soils with increasing saturation depth by rainfall infiltration. For this reason, estimation of cumulative infiltration has a significance. In this study, infiltration rate and cumulative infiltration are estimated by using both Mein & Larson model based on Green-Ampt infiltration model and using modified Mein & Larson model to which unsteady rainfall is applied. According to the results, the modified model is more reasonable than Mein & Larson method itself in estimation of infiltration rate and saturation depth because of considering real pending condition.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.1187-1198
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• 2014

Strong winds and heavy rainfall from tropical cyclones (TCs) that occur in the Northwestern Pacific cause significant human and material damage to the Korean peninsula and East Asia. Hence, it is important to establish early warning systems and conduct preparedness activities in advance of a TC. This study suggests a technique to extract the value of uniform TC-induced rainfall considering the TC track and TC size. To validate our technique, we compare it to existing TC rainfall techniques using the spatial domain. To determine the TC size required for extracting TC-induced rainfall, this research analyzed the mean of TC-induced rainfall by TC size (1973-2012). As a result of this analysis, the maximum amount of mean of TC-induced rainfall was found for a TC with a radius of 700 km. Other techniques have limitations which this new technique addresses; it can extract TC-induced rainfall in each administrative area and minimize systematic biases of other extraction methods. The result of this study can be utilized in the preparation of rainfall forecasts, designing hydraulic structures, and predicting landslide and debris flows using TC-induced rainfall and downpours.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.291-298
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• 2015

There are many landslides occurred by typhoons and intense rainfall during the summer seasons in Korea. To predict a landslide triggering it is important to understand mechanisms and potential areas of landslides by the geological approaches. However, recent climate changes make difficult to predict landslide based on only conventional prediction methods. Therefore, the importance of a real-time monitoring of landslide using various sensors is emphasized in recent. Many researchers have studied monitoring techniques of landslides and suggested several monitoring systems which can be applicable to the natural terrain. Most sensors of landslide monitoring measure slope displacement, hydrogeologic properties of soils and rocks, changes of stress in soil and rock fractures, and rainfall amount and intensity. The measured values of each sensor are transmitted to a monitoring server in real-time. The ultimate goal of landslide monitoring is to warn landslide occurrence in advance and to reduce damages induced by landslides. This study introduces the current situation of landslide monitoring techniques in each country.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.51-59
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• 2014

Shallow landslides and debris flows are a common form of soil slope instability in South Korea. These events may be generally initiated as a result of intense rainfall or lengthening rainfall duration because of the effects of climate change. This paper presents the evaluation of rainfall-induced natural soil slope stability and reinforced soil slope instability under vertical load (railway or highway load) throughout South Korea based on quantitative analysis obtained from 58 sites rainfall observatories for 38 years. The slope stability was performed for infinite and geogrid-reinforced soil slopes by taking an average of maximum rainfall every ten years from 1973 to 2010. Seepage analysis is carried out on unsaturated soil slope using the maximum rainfall at each site, and then the factor of safety was calculated by coupled analysis using saturated and unsaturated strength parameters. The contour map of South Korea shows four stages in 10-year-time for the degree of landslide hazard. The safety factor map based on long term observational data will help prevent rainfall-induced soil slope instability for appropriate design of geotechnical structures regarding disaster protection.