Mechanism, Stability and Mitigation of Large-scale Reservoir Landslides

To address the challenges posed by climate change and the growing demand for clean energy sources such as electricity, developing countries have undertaken the construction of numerous dams. China serves as a prime example, having erected several large reservoirs since the onset of the 21st century, including the Three Gorges Reservoir, Jinping Reservoir, Xiangjiaba Reservoir, Xiluodu Reservoir, Wudongde Reservoir, and Baihetan Reservoir. The establishment of these reservoirs has profoundly impacted the pre-existing regional environment and geological conditions, transforming numerous slopes into reservoir banks and consequently instigating reservoir landslides. The geological structure of these large-scale reservoir landslides is intricate, resulting in complex deformation and failure mechanisms. Furthermore, the stability of these large-scale reservoir landslides is influenced by various external factors, such as reservoir water levels operations and rainfall. The current understanding of mechanisms and stability changes in large scale reservoir landslides remains inadequate. Existing mitigation measures for these large-scale reservoirs have proven insufficient and necessitate further improvement.

In this study, we aim to address the following four key aspects pertaining to large reservoir landslides:
1) The internal and external geological factors contributing to the long-term deformation of large reservoir landslides;
2) The failure mechanisms of large-scale reservoir landslides and the identification of effective failure indicators;
3) The development of a stability analysis method for large scale reservoir landslides that takes into account reservoir water levels operation and rainfall;
4) The introduction of a novel large-scale reservoir landslide mitigation method, supported by relevant engineering case studies.

This Research Topic will be focusing on the theme of “Mechanism, stability and mitigation of large-scale Reservoir Landslides ”, with the aim of providing a platform for exchanging views and experiences. The topic contains the formation and evolution mechanism of large-scale reservoir landslides; failure mechanisms of large-scale reservoir landslides; stability analysis of large-scale reservoir landslides, mitigation of large-scale reservoir landslides. All fundamental and applied studies associated with the above topics are welcome to submit.