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A critical review of highway slope instability risk assessment systems

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Abstract

This paper reviews existing highway slope instability risk assessment systems. It demonstrates that both quantitative and qualitative systems have some major disadvantages with a common characteristic being the lack of emphasis on the geology and geomorphology of slopes. Furthermore, the role of climatic conditions (the most common landslide triggering factor) is diminished or even ignored. It is noted that the existing risk assessment systems focus either on only one category of consequences (e.g. travellers’ safety) or simply sum the scores of more than one category, which may lead to an under-estimation of the significance of a consequence category. Finally, the suitability and reliability of the most commonly used consequences factors are discussed.

Résumé

Cet article considère différents systèmes d’évaluation des risques d’instabilité de talus d’autoroute. Il démontre que les systèmes quantitatifs, de même que les systèmes qualitatifs, présentent des inconvénients majeurs avec la caractéristique commune d’une prise en compte insuffisante de la géologie et de la géomorphologie. De plus, le rôle des conditions climatiques (le facteur de déclenchement de glissements le plus commun) est sous-estimé ou même ignoré. Il est noté que les différents systèmes d’évaluation des risques soit se focalisent sur une seule catégorie de conséquences (e.g. la sécurité des voyageurs) ou simplement additionnent les scores de plus d’une catégorie, ce qui peut conduire à une sous-estimation du risque pour une catégorie particulière. Finalement, l’intérêt et la fiabilité de la plupart des facteurs les plus communément utilisés portant à conséquence sont discutés.

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Abbreviations

HRHRS:

Highway Rockfall Hazard Rating System (Wyllie 1987)

SSRS:

Slope Stability Rating System (FHWA 1989)

RHRS:

Rockfall Hazard Rating System (Pierson and Van Vickle 1993)

RHRON:

Ontario Rockfall Hazard Rating System (Franklin and Senior 1997)

NPCSs:

New Priority Classification Systems (Wong 1998)

USMS:

Unstable Slope Management System (Lowell and Morin 2000)

USRS:

Unstable Slopes Rating System (ODOT 2001)

HiSIMS:

Highway Slope Instability Management System (Miller 2003)

MORFH-RS:

Missouri Rock Fall Hazard Rating System (Maerz and Youssef 2004)

mRHRS:

Modified Rockfall Hazard Rating System (Budetta 2004)

RHCMS:

Rockfall Hazard Classification and Mitigation System (Pierson et al. 2005)

RCSA:

Rock cut stability assessment (Uribe-Etxebarria et al. 2005)

RHRM:

Rockfall Hazard Rating Matrix for Ohio (Woodard and Shakoor 2005)

LHRS:

Landslide Hazard Rating System (Liang et al. 2006)

UDOT-RHRS:

UDOT Rockfall Hazard Rating System (Pack et al. 2006)

TRHRS:

Tennessee Rockfall Hazard Rating System (Mauldon et al. 2007)

RSRP:

Rock Slope Rating Procedure (NYDOT 2007)

CRHRS:

Colorado Rockfall Hazard Rating System (Russell et al. 2008)

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  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloníki, Greece

    Lysandros Pantelidis

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  1. Lysandros Pantelidis
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Correspondence to Lysandros Pantelidis.

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Pantelidis, L. A critical review of highway slope instability risk assessment systems. Bull Eng Geol Environ 70, 395–400 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-010-0328-5

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