Rockfall : characterization and control

R is an important, ongoing socioeconomic issue at many locations worldwide. Accelerated development accompanying population growth, with the associated increased demands for energy, mining, forestry, agricultural, and recreational activities, has caused communities and civil infrastructure to expand onto marginal lands, where evaluations of potential rockfall hazards and appropriate countermeasures are often difficult. At many locations on major transportation routes, the degradation of rock exposures constructed 30 to 40 years ago has increased rockfall-induced traffic disruptions, accidents, and injuries. Demands for improved rockfall evaluation and mitigation have encouraged adoption of new technologies to support new approaches to the evaluation and quantification of rockfall hazards and to the provision of protection from rockfalls. Information about these technologies, however, is not widely available. The Transportation Research Board (TRB) therefore has developed and published an extensively researched book, Rockfall: Characterization and Control, devoted to all aspects of rockfall characterization, analysis, and mitigation.