Journal
CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL JOURNAL
Volume 50, Issue 12, Pages 1204-1218Publisher
CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1139/cgj-2013-0148
Keywords
seasonal behaviour; slope; vegetation; matric suction; three-dimensional transient seepage analysis
Funding
- Research Grants Council of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) [HKUST6/CRF/12R]
- National Basic Research Program (973 Program) [2012CB719805]
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China
- Northern Partnership Research (NRP)
- Scottish Funding Council (SFC) involving University of Aberdeen, University of Dundee
- Robert Gordon University
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Understanding seasonal hydrogeological responses of vegetated soil slopes is vital to slope stability because pore-water pressure (PWP) varies from positive values upon rainfall in wet seasons to negative values upon plant evapotranspiration (ET) in dry seasons. There are, however, few case histories that report seasonal performance of vegetated soil slopes. In this study, a vegetated slope situated in Hong Kong was instrumented to analyse (i) groundwater flow during rainfall in the wet season and (ii) effects of plant ET on PWP in the dry season. Two-and three-dimensional anisotropic transient seepage analyses are conducted to identify groundwater flow mechanism(s) during a heavy rainstorm. Through water and energy balance calculations, measured plant-induced suction is interpreted with plant characteristic and climatic data. During the rainstorm, substantial recharge of the groundwater table was recorded, likely due to preferential water flow along relict joints and three-dimensional cross-slope groundwater flow. During the dry season, the peak suction induced by plant ET is up to 200 kPa and the depth of influence is shallower than 200% of the root depth. For the range of suctions monitored, root-water uptake is revealed to have been restricted by suction not very significantly and was driven mainly by the climatic variation.
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