SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSIS & APPROPRIATE MITIGATING MEASURES FOR ACTIVE SLIDES AROUND SUNKOSHI III HYDROPOWER PROJECT DAMSITE AREA

Abstract

As a part of the course of study in the final year of bachelor degree in Civil Engineering, the students are assigned to perform a project work in order to implement the theoretical knowledge into practical field, in a group consisting of four members, on a topic related to civil engineering field. This project work entitled ―Slope Stability Analysis and Suggestion of Appropriate Mitigating Measures for Active Slides around Sunkoshi III Hydropower Project Damsite Area‖ comes under the category of engineering geology project and is intended to address the risk and vulnerability in the slope around the damsite area and suggesting the proper mitigating measures regarding such risks. The main objective of the project work is to make the student able to analyze the slope stability and study various modes of failures. Despite the time and resource boundary, we have tried to complete the project successfully. We hope it will meet the project objective and requirement, though opinions or suggestions will be highly appreciated. The Geographical Information System (GIS) includes the use of computer to assess landslide susceptibility and hazard mapping. ‗Dips‘ is a popular stereographic projection program for the analysis and presentation of orientation based data. Determination of joint sets, performing kinematic analysis of slope stability etc can be easier with the tool. The use of Dips software assists to the kinematic analysis of slope and phase assist in the field of slope stability analysis. Nepal belongs to active seismic region. The Himalayan range has frequently been struck by earthquake of different magnitude. It has encountered Gorkha Earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on 25th April, 2015. The earthquake resulted in more than 17000 landslides in four neighboring districts alone weakening the thrusts furthermore, across the country. So the hill slopes around the major projects are to be analyzed by considering the safety on slope failure. In this project we were given a hill slope around the damsite area of Sunkoshi III Hydropower project located Sunkoshi River around border of Sindhupalchowk, Kavrepalanchowk and Ramechhap districts of Nepal. We have analyzed the slopes and discontinuities in the slope along with their orientations using Dips software. The landslide susceptibility mapping of the reservoir area was done via ArcGIS software. We used Phase2 software for the FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis of the hill slopes in the dam site area.