Geo-investigation and Slope Stability Analysis of Debris Slides along Ramban-Gool Road Network, Jammu and Kashmir, India

The prevalent landslides in the Kashmir Himalaya are the result of a combination of several geo-environmental parameters in a precarious terrain and extensive developmental activities. The Ramban-Gool road network is one of the landslide prone regions in the valley which has witnessed a constant increase in the landslides, damaging the public property apart from creating major threat to human life and geo-environment. Keeping in view the peril of slope failures, stability assessment of a few vulnerable slopes was carried out along with geological and geotechnical investigation. The stability analysis was carried out using two-dimensional numerical simulation tool limit equilibrium method (LEM) and finite element method (FEM) in both dry and saturated conditions. The results obtained from the study have very clearly demarcated the stability of the slopes in terms of factor of safety. The factor of safety obtained revealed that except for two slopes having factor of safety marginally greater than 1, the other four slopes have factor of safety less than 1 under dry condition indicating unstable condition. The factor of safety further decreases for all the slopes under saturated condition. Furthermore, results obtained from both LEM and FEM show a close approximation with values varying from 1.33 to 0.75 in case of LEM analysis while FEM values vary from 1.31 to 0.76. From FEM analysis, total displacement was also determined for each slope to assess the extent of potential damage.