Stability Assessment of Rock Slopes Using the Q-Slope Classification System: A Reliability Analysis Employing Case Studies in Ecuador

Q-slope is one of the most recent empirical geomechanical classification systems and the least studied in South America. This study aims to expand the knowledge base regarding the Q-slope geomechanical method and demonstrate its applicability and reliability in rock slopes of Andean countries, such as Ecuador. To this end, thirty rocky slopes have been characterized considering (1) the physical visual approach—geographic location, climate, lithology, alteration, and stability (to obtain values of Jr, Ja, Jwice, and SRFa)—and (2) geomechanical stations and kinematic analysis (for the determination of the type of failure, Jn, O-factor, and SRFc for Q-slope). Field data were collected in contrasting environments (coastal, mountain, and forest), and different failure modes were considered (planar, wedge, block, and flexural topplings) to better understand the method. The results and main contributions of this research are (i) verifying the applicability of the Jwice parameters in different climatic settings and (ii) validating the Q-slope method by applying a confusion matrix to evaluate its reliability for slope stability assessment. The overall accuracy obtained is 80%, placing the Q-slope geomechanical method in the highest evaluation quartile and thus classifying it as very good for slope characterization. This work was partially funded by the University of Alicante (vigrob-157 project), the Prometheus Project of the Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of the Republic of Ecuador (for field data acquisition from 2014 to 2015), FCI Projects at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of University of Guayaquil, and by Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital in the framework of the project CIAICO/2021/335.