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Influence of forest stands and root morphologies on hillslope stability.
- Source :
-
Ecological Engineering . Oct2016, Vol. 95, p622-634. 13p. - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- Forest plantations can help to reinforce soil and improve hillslope’s stability against shallow landslides. Based on 3D finite element method implemented in SIMULIA software, this paper develops a 3D numerical simulation model to assess impact of forest’s stands structure and 3D root system morphologies on hillslope’s stability. A preliminary analysis is performed to assess the impact of different stand parameters and root morphologies on the slope’s safety factor as well as on the volume of soil mobilized by a landslide. Regarding tree’s root morphology, we found that the overall slope’s stability mainly depends on the depth of root’s system and on additional cohesion provided by the roots. Hence, tap-like block morphology provides the best overall stability improvement. Furthermore, among the stand parameters, inter-tree distance in the slope direction has the greatest influence on the slope’s safety factor. The rectangular pattern of stand distribution exhibits the lowest inter-tree distance in the slope direction and significantly improves slope’s stability. Finally, the volume of soil mobilized during a landslide shows noticeable variations through root block morphologies. However, for a given root morphology, the stand distribution does not cause significant differences in the volume of soil mobilized during a landslide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 09258574
- Volume :
- 95
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Ecological Engineering
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 118496796
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.06.073