Rock slope instability and erosion: toward improved process understanding

Rock slopes in a range of environments are among the landscape elements most sensitive to climate change, the latter affecting rock mass properties, altering slope boundary conditions, and changing geosystem configurations. Major climate-dependent influences promoting destabilization include stress redistribution with changing glacial ice extents, degradation of mountain permafrost, altered slope hydrology and weathering environments, loading and unloading due to deposition and erosion, and changes in the spectrum of magnitude and frequency of driving forces. In steep bedrock terrain, erosional processes control slope morphology by modulating rates of: (i) weathering in response to climate and pre-disposition, (ii) rock slope retreat in response to magnitude and frequency of detachment, and (iii) channel incision or valley infilling in response to variable sediment supply. Modelling landscape evolution and anticipating natural hazards in these environments thus requires deeper insights into the processes driving rock slope instability and erosion. This special issue emphasizes new understanding of rock slope processes through a collection of manuscripts at the forefront of research in the field. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.