Evaluation of susceptibility to landslides occurrence on earth dam marginal slopes: case study in Araras River basin

• Grant number: 14/07189-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2014
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Fábio Augusto Gomes Vieira Reis
• Grantee: Ana Paula Bortolucci
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The small and medium dams are usually designed and implemented without technical support, being a potential problem, especially in rural areas. The occurrence of landslides on the surrounding reservoir may cause the breaking of the dam and therefore generate debris flows, which will affect catastrophically downstream areas. This research project aims to evaluate the susceptibility to the occurrence of landslides on the surrounding earth dams in the basin of the Rio das Araras, considering the physiographic characteristics of the terrain at a scale of 1:50,000 and the presence of the amount of dams each sub-basin and thus define the vulnerability of dams to slope. The watershed of the Rio das Araras, located in the municipality of Araras and has 66 small and medium dams. To develop the research the following steps are performed: library survey; surveying and vectoring the cartographic base and aerial images; definition of susceptibility of landslides physiographic units; survey of existing dams in the basin of Rio das Araras; preparation of preliminary map of landslides susceptibility; field survey; criteria for defining vulnerability of dams. The main products of the research will be: susceptibility map of landslides on the basin of the Rio das Araras and the of vulnerability map of earth dams to landslides, with their respective criteria.