I apply a forensic, multidisciplinary approach that integrates engineering geology field investigations, engineering geomorphology mapping, long-range terrestrial photogrammetry, and a numerical modelling toolbox to two large rock slope failures to study their causes, initiation, kinematics, and dynamics. I demonstrate the significance of endogenic and exogenic processes, both separately and in concert, in contributing to landscape evolution and conditioning slopes for failure, and use geomorphological and geological observations to validate numerical models. The 1963 Vajont Slide in northeast Italy involved a 270-million-m3 carbonate-dominated mass that slid into the newly created Vajont Reservoir, displacing water that overtopped the Vajont Dam and killed 1910 people. Based on literature, maps and imagery, I propose that the landslide was the last phase of slow, deep-seated slope deformation that began after the valley was deglaciated in the Pleistocene. Field and air photograph observations and stream profiles provide the context of Vajont Slide. The first long-range terrestrial digital photogrammetry models of the landslide aid in characterising the failure scar. Analysis of the failure scar emphasises the complexity of the failure surface due to faults and interference between two tectonic fold generations, influencing failure behaviour. Observations of the pre- and post-failure slope and interpretation of numerical simulations suggest a complex three-dimensional active-passive wedge- sliding mechanism, with two main landslide blocks and five sub-blocks in the west block, separated by secondary shear surfaces. The 1959 Madison Canyon Slide in Montana, USA, was triggered by an M = 7.5 earthquake. A 20-million-m3 rock mass descended from the ridge crest, killing 24 people and blocking Madison River to create Earthquake Lake. Marble at the toe of the slope acted as a buttress for weaker schist and gneiss upslope until the earthquake undermined its integrity and triggered failure. Rock mass characterisation, long-range terrestrial digital photogrammetry, and kinematic analysis indicate that the lateral, rear, and basal release surfaces formed a hexahedral wedge-biplanar failure. Dynamic numerical modelling suggests topographic and damage amplification due to ridge geometry and pre-existing tension cracks. Analysis of the case studies highlights the complexity of large, catastrophic rock slope failures, their causes, and their evolution from incipient failure to disaster.

Analysis, Modeling & Design is the third volume of the five-volume set Rock Mechanics and Engineering and contains twenty-eight chapters from key experts in the following fields: - Numerical Modeling Methods; - Back Analysis; - Risk Analysis; - Design and Stability Analysis: Overviews; - Design and Stability Analysis: Coupling Process Analysis; - Design and Stability Analysis: Blast Analysis and Design; - Rock Slope Stability Analysis and Design; - Analysis and Design of Tunnels, Caverns and Stopes. The five-volume set “Comprehensive Rock Engineering”, which was published in 1993, has had an important influence on the development of rock mechanics and rock engineering. Significant and extensive advances and achievements in these fields over the last 20 years now justify the publishing of a comparable, new compilation. Rock Mechanics and Engineering represents a highly prestigious, multi-volume work edited by Professor Xia-Ting Feng, with the editorial advice of Professor John A. Hudson. This new compilation offers an extremely wideranging and comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in rock mechanics and rock engineering and is composed of peer-reviewed, dedicated contributions by all the key experts worldwide. Key features of this set are that it provides a systematic, global summary of new developments in rock mechanics and rock engineering practices as well as looking ahead to future developments in the fields. Contributors are worldrenowned experts in the fields of rock mechanics and rock engineering, though younger, talented researchers have also been included. The individual volumes cover an extremely wide array of topics grouped under five overarching themes: Principles (Vol. 1), Laboratory and Field Testing (Vol. 2), Analysis, Modelling and Design (Vol. 3), Excavation, Support and Monitoring (Vol. 4) and Surface and Underground Projects (Vol. 5). This multi-volume work sets a new standard for rock mechanics and engineering compendia and will be the go-to resource for all engineering professionals and academics involved in rock mechanics and engineering for years to come.

Landslides have geological causes but can be triggered by natural processes (rainfall, snowmelt, erosion and earthquakes) or by human actions such as agriculture and construction. Research aimed at better understanding slope stability and failure has accelerated in recent years, accompanied by basic field research and numerical modeling of slope failure processes, mechanisms of debris movement, and landslide causes and triggers. Written by seventy-five world-leading researchers and practitioners, this book provides a state-of-the-art summary of landslide science. It features both field geology and engineering approaches, as well as modeling of slope failure and run-out using a variety of numerical codes. It is illustrated with international case studies integrating geological, geotechnical and remote sensing studies, and includes recent slope investigations in North America, Europe and Asia. This is an essential reference for researchers and graduate students in geomorphology, engineering geology, geotechnical engineering and geophysics, as well as professionals in natural hazard analysis.

Characterization of unstable rock slopes can pose a high level of risk toward the geoscientist/engineer in the field due to inaccessibility and safety issues. During recent decades, rapidly developing remote sensing (RS) techniques, including Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS), Terrestrial Digital Photogrammetry (TDP), and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Structure-from-Motion (UAV-SfM) are being progressively employed for landslide investigation and risk assessment. These methods allow acquisition of three-dimensional (3D) data sets from previously inaccessible terrain with sub-centimeter accuracy. This research describes an innovative approach to investigate the preliminary engineering geological characterization of a large (~5.5 Mm3), destructive landslide that occurred on August 2nd, 2014 near Jure in Sindhupalchok, ~70 km northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal. Various methods have been employed including traditional field surveys, RS techniques and preliminary 2D/3D numerical modelling with the objective of understanding conditioning factors, slope failure mechanisms, and identifying/mitigating future hazards at the site. With four years of RS data, analysis of strength degradation and progressive weakening of the rock mass is investigated by linking process of erosion and deposition using 3D change detection algorithms. The slope is still potentially in an unstable state, undergoing progressive rockfalls/slides with the most recent major event (~20,000 m3) in August 2017. Results throughout this thesis, including 2D/3D rock engineering mapping and modelling have been integrated into an interactive 3D Virtual/Mixed Reality (VR/MR) Jure Landslide geodatabase model, enabling an immersive and enhanced engineering 3D geovisualization experience. A comparative 2D/3D, and VR/MR rockfall simulations has been undertaken and developed within an augmented reality Microsoft HoloLens. Moreover, this thesis concludes on how VR/MR techniques can be employed to conduct discontinuity mapping on virtual outcrops and provide a game-changing way that geoscientists can communicate landslide investigation and risk assessment in all stages of rock engineering.

The book presents a collection of papers focused on recent progress in key areas of photogrammetry for environmental research. Applications oriented to the understanding of natural phenomena and quantitative processes using dataset from photogrammetry (from satellite to unmanned aerial vehicle images) and terrestrial laser scanning, also by a diachronic approach, are reported. The book covers topics of interest of many disciplines from geography, geomorphology, engineering geology, geotechnology, including landscape description and coastal studies. Mains issues faced by the book are related to applications on coastal monitoring, using multitemporal aerial images, and investigations on geomorphological hazard by the joint use of proximal photogrammetry, terrestrial and aerial laser scanning aimed to the reconstruction of detailed surface topography and successive 2D/3D numerical simulations for rock slope stability analyses. Results reported in the book bring into evidence the fundamental role of multitemporal surveys and reliable reconstruction of morphologies from photogrammetry and laser scanning as support to environmental researches.

This thesis represents a large body of work that seeks to describe, quantify, and simulate the behaviour of large rock slope failures (> 1 Mm3), in the form of landslides and rock avalanches, and their secondary processes, such as landslide-dammed lakes, utilizing remotely sensed data. Remotely sensed data includes aerial photography, high resolution satellite imagery from various platforms (e.g. LANDSAT, ASTER, EO-1, SPOT), and digital topographic elevation models of the Earth's surface (e.g. SRTM-3, ASTER GDEM2, LiDAR). This thesis focused on regions in northwest North America (British Columbia, Yukon Territory, and Alaska), and on regions in the Himalaya and Pamirs Mountain chains (Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, and India). These study regions are each highly dynamic landscapes, where the occurrence of rock slope failures per area is higher than non-mountainous regions, and these events are aiding to the shape and profile of the landscapes and surfaces found today. This thesis focuses on: 1) the ability to accurately calculate geometrics (e.g. areas, volumes, runouts, debris depths) for large scale landslides and their associated landslide dammed lakes (e.g. areas, volumes, outbursts), utilizing data from remotely sensed sources; 2) the attempt to successfully simulate the observed dynamics for both landslide emplacement and their resulting debris deposits (DAN-W, DAN3D), and possible outburst flood scenarios (FLO2D); and, 3) attempt to quantify the kinetic and specific energy involved in rock avalanches, and how these energetics relate to fragmentation, as well as the lateral spreading and thinning of debris sheets. The river valleys of the northwest Himalayas (Pakistan and India) and the adjacent Pamirs Mountains of Afghanistan and Tajikistan contain in excess of two hundred known rockslide deposits of unknown age that have interrupted surface drainage and previously dammed major rivers in the region in recent and prehistoric time. Some prehistoric rockslide dams in the northwest Himalayas have impounded massive lakes with volumes in excess of 20 Gm3. The region contains: 1) the highest rockslide dam in the world (the 1911 Usoi rockslide, Tajikistan), which impounds the current largest rockslide-dammed lake (Lake Sarez) on Earth (est. volume 17 Gm3); 2) the largest documented outburst flood (6.5 Gm3) associated with a historical rockslide dam outburst (the 1841 Indus Flood, Pakistan); and, 3) the world's most recent rockslide-dammed lake emergency, the 2010 Attabad rockslide dam on the Hunza River, in the Upper Indus basin, including the newly created Lake Gojal. By accurately quantifying the volume of an impoundment, and the downstream valley topography (DEM), floodwave scenarios can be created for various breaching situations, allowing for the delineation of downstream inundation areas, or the creation of hazard and risk scenarios. Two methods are used to attempt to quantify the volumes of landslide-dammed lakes: 1) a contour interpolation method, focusing on the creation of contours to represent lake levels in the DEM data; and, 2) a new technique using digitized shorelines and statistical methods to obtain lake elevations on specific dates. A new technique has also been developed to quantify the larger block fragmentation from rock avalanches in the glacial environment, and a credible grain-size curve for the largest blocks can be obtained, aiding in the creation of a more complete grain-size curve for a particular event. The combination of landslides and their associated landslide dammed lakes are an important geomorphic process to study, as these events have a direct relationship to the hazard and risk faced by local communities living and working in these regions. By understanding the emplacement and deposit dynamics of large landslides and/or the outburst flood scenarios from naturally impounded reservoirs, we can attempt to reduce the direct impacts these events have to local communities.

Landslides have geological causes but can be triggered by natural processes (rainfall, snowmelt, erosion and earthquakes) or by human actions such as agriculture and construction. Research aimed at better understanding slope stability and failure has accelerated in recent years, accompanied by basic field research and numerical modeling of slope failure processes, mechanisms of debris movement, and landslide causes and triggers. Written by 75 world-leading researchers and practitioners, this book provides a state-of-the-art summary of landslide science. It features both field geology and engineering approaches, as well as modeling of slope failure and run-out using a variety of numerical codes. It is illustrated with international case studies integrating geological, geotechnical and remote sensing studies and includes recent slope investigations in North America, Europe and Asia. This is an essential reference for researchers and graduate students in geomorphology, engineering geology, geotechnical engineering and geophysics, as well as professionals in natural hazard analysis.