published_or_final_version / Applied Geosciences / Master / Master of Science

An unstable slope in an open-pit copper mine in Arizona was analyzed after a 250,000-ton slope failure had occurred. Data on all available time-dependent hydrogeologic factors were analyzed utilizing multiple regression techniques in order to build a mathematical model of the slide displacement. This allowed determination of those factors which were most influential in promoting instability. It was determined that a ground-water rise of approximately one foot, and rainfall in the week prior to the failure, were the most important factors contributing to this particular slide. This is believed to be due primarily to an increase in cleft-water, or hydrostatic, pressure, with seepage forces contributing a significant but relatively constant shear component. Because instability was observed to extend beyond the original slope failure, a dewatering analysis was undertaken. A steady-state finite element flow system model series was developed by progressively incorporating subsurface information, as well as water table location. The ground-water flow system within the granitic host rock was then simulated as a continuum, and a flow net derived. Analysis of this flow net, combined with known ground-water discharge into the open pit, comprised the basis to estimate the coefficient of permeability to be approximately 4 gallons/day/foot². This value was then utilized in a preliminary dewatering analysis incorporating standard aquifer equations to predict possible drawdowns. The computed drawdowns suggest that pumping rates on the order of 10 gallons/minute/well from a line of 12 wells spaced 50 feet apart would produce approximately 100 feet of drawdown after 1 year of pumping. Results of stability analyses for various ground-water levels indicated that when the water table is lowered by dewatering, a steeper slope could be maintained in the open pit. Such steepening could be as much as 1° when the water table is lowered one-half to one-quarter the height of the slope (135 feet), and approximately 4½° when the slope area is completely drained.

In geotechnical engineering, granular flows are often studied as a means to further the understanding of the mechanisms that drive landslide motion. High quality experimental data is essential in providing evidence for the development and verification of new theoretical methods that link complex grain interactions to the extended mobility of some landslide events. At present, limited experimental data is available that captures the full range of landslide mobility. In an attempt to add to the present data sources, high quality experimental data was obtained through the use of high speed cameras and physical modelling using a geotechnical centrifuge and a large scale landslide flume. These modelling techniques allow for landslide motion, representative of field scale events, to be observed in a well-defined and controlled setting. A series of nine tests were performed in a geotechnical centrifuge under varying slope inclinations and Coriolis conditions. The effects of Coriolis on landslide mobility were evident when comparing final deposit shapes and total runout. The effects of Coriolis were more pronounced for higher velocity situations and when material was travelling on the horizontal base section opposed to the sloped section of the physical model. A series of thirty tests were performed using a large scale flume under varying source volumes and basal friction conditions, capturing the grain scale interactions and overall runout behaviour. The grain interactions and ultimately the flow behavioural regimes developed were a function of material source volume and boundary roughness. The dimensionless inertial number was used to classify flows into behavioural regimes, but was found to break down when describing transitions to the granular gas behavioural regime. The runout-time results and final deposit shapes showed significant variation between test configurations, indicating the effects of volume and basal friction on overall mobility. Using the depth averaged numerical model, DAN, it was found that a single set of empirically derived frictional parameters (i.e. specific to internal and basal friction conditions) was appropriate for matching the overall mobility of the experimental flows over a range of flow volumes and slope inclinations. / Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-25 15:48:54.761

As áreas urbanas precárias, também denominadas de favelas são as mais frequentemente afetadas por escorregamentos e também as mais vulneráveis, gerando danos sociais de maior monta. Este cenário resultou na demanda e no desenvolvimento de uma série de ações do poder público em diferentes municípios e estados brasileiros, culminando com o estabelecimento de um programa federal, vinculado ao Ministério das Cidades, voltado à mitigação destes riscos com o desenvolvimento de mapeamentos e a implantação de planos preventivos de defesa civil, de obras de estabilização e de reurbanização nestas áreas de risco. No estado de São Paulo, o mapeamento de escorregamento em encostas urbanas precárias vem sendo realizado desde 1990, através das iniciativas de órgãos públicos e com a participação de diversas instituições. O método de mapeamento atualmente mais utilizado emprega como técnicas principais a realização de vistorias sistemáticas de campo, investigações de superfície, utilização de fichas descritivas para armazenar as informações coletadas e a delimitação de setores de risco em imagens aéreas recentes e de grande escala e de detalhe. Este método é bastante aplicado e muitas vezes consegue subsidiar satisfatoriamente as ações de mitigação dos riscos de escorregamentos, indicando os locais prioritários para receberem estas ações. Por outro lado, o método também é questionado pelo meio técnico devido sua abordagem qualitativa, pela pouca utilização dos métodos clássicos de mapeamento geotécnico e de análise de estabilidade de taludes e pelo grau elevado de subjetividade que pode agregar, podendo produzir resultados de baixa confiabilidade. A contribuição da presente pesquisa é o aprimoramento do método de mapeamento de perigo e de risco de escorregamentos em áreas urbanas, diminuindo a subjetividade na comparação e na hierarquização dos setores, sem modificar sua abordagem fundamental e suas técnicas principais atualmente utilizadas. Para tornar o método mais sistemático, propõe-se incorporar o Processo de Análise Hierárquica (AHP) na análise dos indicadores e na hierarquização dos setores de perigo. Comparou-se o mapeamento de perigo com a aplicação do AHP com o mapeamento de risco de escorregamentos realizado em São Sebastião (SP) pelo IG-SMA em 2005, verificando-se que os resultados do mapeamento de perigo com a aplicação do AHP foram mais conservadores em algumas áreas. Entretanto, os resultados com a aplicação do AHP, diminuiu a subjetividade e evidenciou a facilidade e praticidade em se verificar a contribuição (em forma de peso) dos indicadores de perigo na classificação do perigo nos setores mapeados. Também foram analisadas as opiniões de três especialistas nos julgamentos paritários dos indicadores de perigo de escorregamentos. Os resultados não mostraram discrepâncias na classificação do perigo. / The poor urban areas, also called slums are the most frequently affected by landslides and also the most vulnerable, leading to greater social harm mounts. This situation pushed a series of actions by public authorities in several Brazilian cities and states. In the federal level was, established a program, under the auspice of the Ministry of Cities, aimed to mitigating these risks with the development of hazard and risk mapping projects and implementation of preventive plans for civil defense, works of stabilization and redevelopment in these areas of risk. In the State of São Paulo, the landslide mapping on poor and slum urban areas has been held since 1990 in several municipalities, through the initiatives of government agencies and with the participation of many institutions. The mapping method employs currently more used as main techniques to carry out systematic field surveys, surface investigations, use of fact sheets to store the information collected and the delimitation of areas of hazard and risk in aerial images, and recent large-scale and detail. This mapping method has been widely applied and often gave satisfactorily support to the initiatives to mitigate the risks of landslides, indicating the prior sites to receive those initiatives. Nevertheless, the method is questioned by the specialists because of its qualitative approach, the lack of use of traditional methods of geological and geotechnical investigation and analysis of slope stability and the high degree of subjectivity that sometimes can produce unreliable results. The expected contribution to this research is to enhance the method of hazard mapping and risk of landslides in poor and slum urban areas by reducing its subjectivity for the comparison and ranking of sectors. It is not the intent of the research to change, its fundamental approach and its main techniques currently used. To this end, it is proposed to incorporate to the method the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in the systematic analysis of the indicators and the ranking of hazard sectors. We compared the hazard mapping with the application of the AHP and landslide risk mapping conducted in São Sebastião - SP by the IG-SMA in 2005, verifying that the results of the hazard mapping in the application of the AHP were more conservative in some areas. However, the results from the application of the AHP, decreased the subjectivity and demonstrated the ease and convenience to verify the contribution (in the form of weight) of the hazard indicators in the ranking of hazard in the areas mapped. We also analyzed the opinions of three experts in the trials of parity landslides hazard indicators. The results showed no discrepancies in the ranking of hazard.

O município de Paraty localiza-se entre os de Angra dos Reis e Ubatuba, palcos de numerosos episódios de escorregamentos. Tal como os municípios vizinhos é marcado pela presença da Serra do Mar, na qual os escorregamentos rasos de solo sob a forma de movimentos translacionais respondem pela maior parte da evolução do relevo. E, no entanto, não há ali referências de mortes associadas a estes acidentes, relativamente numerosas nos dois municípios vizinhos. A pesquisa teve por objetivo fazer uma carta da suscetibilidade a escorregamentos (SE) do município, auxiliando ao poder público local no planejamento do uso e ocupação futura do solo paratiense. Esta carta, com três classes de suscetibilidade (baixa, média e alta) foi fruto do cruzamento, em ambiente SIG, de cartas de uso e cobertura do solo (dados de imagem orbital de sensoriamento remoto e informação de campo), de litologias, de estruturas geológicas, de declividade e de forma das encostas. Foram testados três diferentes modelos digitais de elevação para a elaboração doa mapas de declividade e forma de encostas: SRTM e ASTER re-amostrados para 30 m de resolução espacial e ASTER, 15 m de resolução espacial, que foi o adotado pela distribuição mais confiável das áreas relativas às diferentes classes de suscetibilidade. Na ausência de dados de pluviosidade confiáveis e adequados à pesquisa foram considerados, para um exercício de demonstração da importância do parâmetro, dados fornecidos pela Defesa Civil de Paraty, complementados por dados de áreas circundantes (DAEE-SP e Plano de Manejo do Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina) e do Mapa de Isoietas da CPRM. Em trabalhos de campo por terra, mar e ar foi observado o uso e cobertura do solo e localizadas cicatrizes de escorregamentos. Considerando existirem imagens orbitais desde antes do fim do isolamento de Paraty, em 1975, obteve-se a evolução das áreas florestadas do município interpretando imagens orbitais dos anos de 1973, 1986, 1993, 2000, 2007 e 2008. As cartas assim geradas foram cruzadas com os demais parâmetros dados pelos condicionantes naturais dos terrenos, evidentemente estáveis no período, permitindo obter cartas de SE ao longo de 35 anos e sua evolução no período. A análise desta evolução é preocupante, pois mostra que a ocupação humana nas áreas de alta suscetibilidade aumentou 4,8% ao ano. Os resultados classificam 34% da área do município como de baixa suscetibilidade, 53% como de média e 13% como de alta. Observese que entre 1973 e 2008, 23% das florestas foram perdidas, com uma perda anual média de 0,6%, mais acentuada no período de abertura da BR-101 (o que é inevitável) e a partir do ano 2000 (o que é preocupante). Conclui-se que a população habita, sobretudo, as áreas de baixa suscetibilidade a escorregamentos enquanto que nas áreas de média e alta suscetibilidades, sem cobertura florestal, predominam pastos. Embora as perspectivas preocupem, este estudo alerta para um risco futuro, ainda em tempo de ser minimizado e/ou evitado. Considerando a expansão urbana e rural como inevitável, um Plano Diretor que considere a suscetibilidade a movimentos de massa é imprescindível. / The city of Paraty is located between the Angra dos Reis and Ubatuba municipalities, stages of a numerous episodes of landslides. As the neighboring cities is marked by the presence of the Serra do Mar, where the shallow landslides in the form of translational movements account for most of the evolution of relief. And yet, there is no reference to deaths associated with these accidents, relatively numerous in the two neighboring cities. The research aimed to make a to landslides susceptibility map (SE) of Paraty municipality, helping the local government in planning the future soil use and occupation. This map, with three classes of susceptibility (low, medium and high) was the result of crossing, in a GIS environment, of the use and land cover (image data of orbital remote sensing and field information), lithologies, geological structures and slope and curvature maps. We tested three different digital elevation models for the development gives maps of slope and curvature: SRTM and ASTER resampled to 30 m spatial resolution and ASTER 15 m spatial resolution, which was adopted by the distribution of more reliable areas relating to different classes of susceptibility. In the absence of reliable rainfall and suitable for research, was considered, for an exercise to demonstrate the importance of the parameter, data from the Civil Defense of Paraty, supplemented by data from surrounding areas (DAEE-SP and Management Plan of the National Park of Bocaina) and the map of isohyets from Bazilian Geological Service (CPRM). In the field, by land, sea and air was observed the use and land cover and localized slip scars. Whereas there are orbital images from the end of the isolation of Paraty, in 1975, resulted in the development of forested areas in the municipality interpreting orbital images of the years 1973, 1986, 1993, 2000, 2007 and 2008. The maps thus generated were crossed with the other parameters given by the natural conditions of land, evidently stable in the period, enabling them to get maps of SE over 35 years and their evolution over time. The analysis of this trend is worrisome because it shows that human occupation in areas of high susceptibility increased 4.8% per year. The results classify 34% of the municipal area as low susceptibility, 53% as medium and 13% as high. Note that between 1973 and 2008 23% of forests were lost, with an average annual loss of 0.6%, more pronounced during the opening of the BR-101(which is inevitable) and from 2000 (which is worrying). It follows that the population lives, especially the areas of low susceptibility to landslides while the areas of medium and high sensitivities without forest cover dominated pastures. Although the prospects worry, this study shows a future risk, just in time to be minimized and / or avoided. Considering the rural and urban sprawl as inevitable, a Master Plan to consider the susceptibility to mass movements is essential.

O mapeamento de áreas com predisposição à ocorrência de eventos adversos, que resultam em ameaça e danos a sociedade, é uma demanda de elevada importância, principalmente pelo papel que exerce em ações de planejamento, gestão ambiental, territorial e de riscos. Diante disso, este trabalho busca contribuir na qualificação de metodologias e parâmetros morfométricos para mapeamento de suscetibilidade a movimentos de massa através de SIG e Sensoriamento Remoto, um dos objetivos é aplicar e comparar metodologias de suscetibilidade a movimentos de massa, entre elas o Shalstab, e a Árvore de Decisão que ainda é pouco utilizada nessa área. Buscando um consenso acerca da literatura, fez-se necessário organizar as informações referentes aos eventos adversos através de classificação, para isso foram revisados os conceitos relacionados com desastres, tais como suscetibilidade, vulnerabilidade, perigo e risco. Também foi realizado um estudo no município de Três Coroas – RS, onde foram relacionadas as ocorrências de movimentos de massa e as zonas de risco da CPRM. A partir de parâmetros morfométricos, foram identificados padrões de ocorrência de deslizamentos, e a contribuição de fatores como uso, ocupação e declividade. Por fim, foram comparados dois métodos de mapeamento de suscetibilidade, o modelo Shalstab e a Árvore de Decisão. Como dado de entrada dos modelos foram utilizados parâmetros morfométricos, extraídos de imagens SRTM, e amostras de deslizamentos, identificadas por meio de imagens de satélite de alta resolução espacial. A comparação das metodologias e a análise da acurácia obteve uma resposta melhor para a Árvore de Decisão. A diferença, entretanto, foi pouco significativa e ambos podem representar de forma satisfatória o mapa de suscetibilidade. No entanto, o Shalstab apresentou mais limitações, devido à necessidade de dados de maior resolução espacial. A aplicação de metodologias utilizando SIG e Sensoriamento Remoto contribuíram com uma maior qualificação em relação à prevenção de danos ocasionados por movimentos de massa. Ressalta-se, entretanto, a necessidade de inventários consistentes, para obter uma maior confiabilidade na aplicação dos modelos. / The mapping of areas with predisposition to adverse events, which result in threat and damage to society, is a demand of great importance, mainly for the role it plays in planning, environmental, territorial and risk management actions. Therefore, this work seeks to contribute to the qualification of methodologies and morphometric parameters for mapping susceptibility to mass movements through GIS and Remote Sensing, one of the objectives is to apply and compare methodologies of susceptibility to mass movements, among them Shalstab, and the Decision Tree that is still little used in this area. Seeking a consensus about the literature, it was necessary to organize the information regarding the adverse events through classification, for this the concepts related to disasters such as susceptibility, vulnerability, danger and risk were reviewed. A study was also carried out in the city of Três Coroas - RS, where the occurrence of mass movements and the risk zones of CPRM were related. From morphometric parameters, patterns of occurrence of landslides were identified, and the contribution of factors such as use, occupation and declivity. Finally, two methods of susceptibility mapping, the Shalstab model and the Decision Tree, were compared. Morphometric parameters, extracted from SRTM images, and sliding samples, identified by means of high spatial resolution satellite images, were used as input data. The comparison of the methodologies and the analysis of the accuracy obtained a better answer for the Decision Tree. The difference, however, was insignificant and both can represent satisfactorily the map of susceptibility. However, Shalstab presented more limitations due to the need for higher spatial resolution data. The application of methodologies using GIS and Remote Sensing contributed with a higher qualification in relation to the prevention of damages caused by mass movements. However, the need for consistent inventories to obtain greater reliability in the application of the models is emphasized.

Resumo: Em meio tropical, os escorregamentos figuram entre os fenômenos que mais geram acidentes em áreas de risco, causando uma série de perdas econômicas e humanas a cada ano. Várias cidades brasileiras congregam a ameaça dos escorregamentos e a vulnerabilidade de parte significativa de sua população, mas, apesar disso, os trabalhos preventivos são iniciativas raras ou até mesmo inexistentes. Nos casos em que essa atividade é desenvolvida, geralmente pode-se verificar a negligência sobre certos aspectos fundamentais do risco, dentre eles a percepção e a conduta dos moradores envolvidos. Neste trabalho, os riscos de escorregamentos na Vila Mello Reis, em Juiz de Fora (MG), foram pesquisados por intermédio da abordagem perceptiva. Mais especificamente, foram investigadas as seguintes variáveis: percepção dos elementos condicionantes e deflagradores dos escorregamentos, da causalidade dos acidentes e da responsabilidade sobre os riscos; avaliação e escolha do local de moradia; limiares de segurança; ajustamentos à situação de risco; e tomada de decisão e participação na escala do bairro. Logo, a partir dos resultados obtidos, procurou-se construir um conjunto de propostas visando subsidiar o trabalho de planejamento e de gestão urbanos no cenário da pesquisa, sobretudo no que diz respeito à prevenção de acidentes envolvendo escorregamentos. / Abstract: In a tropical environment, the landslide appear among the phenomena that generate more accidents in risk areas, causing a series of economic and human losses each year. Several Brazilian cities gather the landslides threatment and the vulnerability of a significative part of their population, but nonethless, the preventive works are rare initiative or either nonexistants. In cases when this activity is carried out generally it can be verified the neglicency about some fundamental aspects of risk among them the perception and the behave of some community people engaged in it. In this work, the landslides risks in Mello Reis village, in Juiz de Fora city (MG), were researched through the perceivity approach. It were investigated specifically the following variables: perception of the conditioning elements and landslides startes, the accidents causes and the risks responsability; evaluation and the dweling site choicing; security threshold; adjustment to the risk situation; decision making and participation at the neighbourhood area. So, through the reached outcomes, it was tried to construct a set of propositions aiming to subsidize the planning and urban management on the research setting, above all concerning to accidents prevention due to landslides. / Orientador: João Afonso Zavattini / Coorientador: Lívia de Oliveira / Banca: Sandra Elisa Contri Pitton / Banca: Lucy Marion Calderini Philadelpho Machado / Banca: José Bueno Conti / Banca: Daniel Joseph Hogan / Doutor

Debris flows can be considered the most significant geological hazard in areas of high relief in Scotland having impacted upon slope foot infrastructure several times in recent years. The potency of this geohazard is anticipated to increase over the coming decades due to a climatologically enforced upturn in debris flow frequency. In thisresearch material and topographic controls on debris flow activity are investigated using a combination of field and laboratory based analysis of debris flows at six study sites across upland Scotland. Centrifuge modelling is also used to simulate theinitiation of debris flows in soils with varying particle size distributions.Spatial densities of debris flow measured in the field indicate that hillslopes underlain by sandstone and granitic bedrocks, which tend to be mantled by coarser sand rich soils, have a greater frequency of flows than those underlain by schist andextrusive lava bedrocks. Higher debris flow densities on slopes underlain by sandstone and granite lithologies are facilitated by high permeability in overlying regolith matrixes allowing more rapid increase in pore water pressures duringrainstorms although this is likely to be further influenced by packing and organic content. Centrifuge modelling of hillslope debris flows also demonstrate that sandier soils are generally geotechnically more susceptible to slope failure.The susceptibility of a hillslope to debris flow is strongly influenced by slope geometry and morphology. Hillslopes with persistently steep slopes and a high incidence of concavities, gullies and couloirs are topographically more predisposed todebris flow activity due to greater shear stresses and morphologically controlled, gravity induced concentrations of hillslope hydrology. The majority of material in channelised debris flows is entrained during the gully propagation stage of the massmovement. Consequently, such events can be considered accumulative channelised debris flows. Longer and steeper gullies with greater sediment capacities are more likely to yield larger flow mass movements. Coupling between open hillslopes andbedrock gullies is shown to be an essential component for conceptualisation of the debris flow geohazard.Due to the role they play in amplifying debris flow magnitude, hazard management should be focussed around bedrock gullies and stream channels. Highesthazard rankings should be assigned to slope foot infrastructure in proximity to gullied stream channels with high sediment capacities and long, steep profiles conducive to large accumulative channelised debris flows. To avoid detrimental aesthetic impact, hazard management should be strongly geared towards utilisation of lower impactexposure reduction techniques and less visually intrusive engineering approaches such as increasing culvert capacity to accommodate debris flows. During realignment or the planning of future transport infrastructure, culverts with capacities significantly exceeding those required for purely hydrodynamic considerations should be placed straight on to stream channels avoiding proximal gully bends.

This thesis contains two main parts. The first part presents a database compiling 137 landslide-triggering earthquakes (LTEs) worldwide, with magnitudes greater than the minimum observed threshold for causing landslides (M4.5), for the period of 1998 -2009. Our data sources include a comprehensive review of the existing literature on earthquake-triggered landslides (ETLs), and also a USGS-based earthquake catalog (PAGER-CAT) that contains information on earthquake-triggered secondary events. Only 14 earthquakes out of the 137 seismic events induced significant numbers of landslides (>250). We compared the number of ETLs with the total number of earthquakes with M ≥ 4.5 (n=68,734) during the same period of time. The results show that only 0.2 % of ETLs and only 4.5% of earthquakes of M > 6 resulted in landslide. In addition, we compiled a database of 37 large-scale landslides, involving initial failure volumes of greater than 20 Mm3 that occurred worldwide between 1900 to 2010. The database contains large-scale earthquake-triggered (n ETLs=18) and non-earthquake-triggered landslides (n NETLs=20), i.e., ca. 50% of large-scale landslides were induced by seismic activity. Surprisingly, the volume-temporal frequency curves of ETLs and NETLs show almost identical slopes and intercepts. Thus, for a given volume, the annual frequency of ETLs is almost identical to that of NETLs in the 110 year period. In contrast to previous studies, this thesis found that the volume of the largest landslide triggered by a given landslide-triggering earthquake is not a function of earthquake magnitude. Peak ground motions (PGA, PGV, and PSA) were calculated for the 18 large-scale ETLs at the site of each occurrence and the resulting values show a correlation with the volume of landslides below the threshold of ca. 80 Mm3. Above this threshold, the relationship between peak ground motions and ETL volume shows complex and nonlinear behavior. The results suggest that 1) other special conditions are required for significant earthquake-triggered landslides to occur, and 2) that very large earthquake-triggered landslides (volume greater than 80 Mm3) result from complex progressive failure mechanisms initiated by seismic shaking (i.e., above this threshold volume, landslide volume is independent of PGA, PGV, and PSA). A detailed analysis of the two 1985 Nahanni earthquakes and the North Nahanni rockslide triggered by the first main shock is carried out in the second part of the study. The North Nahanni rockslide, Northwest Territories, Canada was triggered by the earthquake of M=6.6 on October 5th, 1985. The slide occurred in a Palaeozoic carbonate sequence along a thrust fault, which partly follows bedding and partly cuts across bedding. The sliding surface within the limestone consisted of two planes; the lower plane dipped at 20° while the upper plane dipped at 35°. Slope stability analysis is performed using discontinuum numerical modeling. Static slope stability analyses indicate that the sliding rock was marginally safe for the sliding surface friction angles of 24o or higher. Dynamic analyses of the co-seismic movements are conducted by applying a series of sinusoidal waves to the base of the model. The amplitudes of the October earthquake's seismic waves are estimated using strong motion data available from the second main shock. The results, from the dynamic analysis indicate that the slope becomes unstable for given seismic inputs at a specific range of friction angles (24o to 30o) for the sliding surface and the deformation behavior of the North Nahanni rock masses is dependent on the frequency of the seismic signals. Because the static slope stability analysis showed that the slope was close to instability prior to the seismic shaking, we suggest that the 1985 Nahanni earthquake operated as a trigger event that accelerated the occurrence of the slide. This finding supports our earlier results of the global scale study, which showed that the triggering event does not change the general trend of the frequency-volume distribution of landslides; however, it can accelerate the occurrence of slope failure.

Landslides are one of the most dangerous geological hazards. In the United States, landslides cause a damage of $ 3.5 billion and kill 25 to 50 people annually. Shallow landslides occurring near any transportation facilities (railways and highways) can cause economic loss and disturbance of services which lead to indirect economic loss. It also increases the maintenance cost of those facilities. Hence, facilities located near a shallow landslide prone area should be monitored so as to avoid any catastrophic damages. Soil moisture and movement of the soil mass are prime indicators of potential shallow slide movements. This assessment of wireless instruments considers a variety of devices ranging from devices for monitoring tilt and moisture at specific points in the soil mass to ground penetrating radar (GPR), which can give indications of moisture accumulation in soils over a wide spatial extent. For this assessment study, a low cost MEMS accelerometer was selected for measuring tilts and motions. And EC type soil moisture sensor was selected to measure soil moisture content of embankments. The instrumentation of railway embankments works effectively and cheaply when a suspected problem area has already been identified and monitoring is needed over a limited spatial extent. This makes the monitoring system highly localized which often fails to cover potentially new failure prone areas. It is not feasible to use this approach to monitor soil conditions along the entire alignment of the railway. Therefore, another approach, GPR, is defined and explained in this study. GPR measures the dielectric constant value for any given material including soils. In soils, the dielectric constant value depends on the volumetric amount of water content present in a soil. Due to moisture infiltration, there is a reduction in suction value on embankment which indicates a decrease in shear strength of slope. Therefore, a correlation between suction and dielectric constant value is formulated in this study using Complex Refractive index model/Time propagation (CRIM/TP) model for soils. To validate this theoretical correlation, a laboratory study was conducted on pure kaolinite and on normal soil. For pure kaolinite this correlation proves beneficial while, for other type of soil, the correlation was off due to the limitations in filter paper test to measure suction below 2.5pF.