Geotechnical aspects of soil slips in Alpine regions

Abstract Slope movements are due to many different causes. Numerous investigations carried out during the last ten years have led to the supposition that almost all slope movements, and particularly those occurring in soils, are conditioned by a significant combination of factors. For the Alpine regions, quantity, duration and kind of precipitation have to be considered as direct mechanical causes. Combined with such contributing factors as geological and soil-mechanical properties, aspect, vegetation, slope inclination and slope morphology, they will determine the type, dimensions and process of slope movements. The detailed investigation of 140 slope movements in slightly cohesive soils show that the process of movement is represented by sliding and flow events. In particular it was found out that shallow scars with planar slides predominate so that the supposition of an infinite slope model for slope stability appears to be justified. In many cases debris flows and debris avalanches continued downslope of the source area of the scars.