Effects of heterogeneity distribution on hillslope stability during rainfalls

The objective of this study was to investigate the spatial relationship between the most likely distribution of saturated hydraulic conductivity(Ks) and the observed pressure head(P) distribution within a hillslope. The cross-correlation analysis method was used to investigate the effects of the variance of ln Ks, spatial structure anisotropy of ln Ks, and vertical infiltration flux(q) on P at some selected locations within the hillslope. The cross-correlation analysis shows that, in the unsaturated region with a uniform flux boundary, the dominant correlation between P and Ksis negative and mainly occurs around the observation location of P. A relatively high P value is located in a relatively low Kszone, while a relatively low P value is located in a relatively high Kszone. Generally speaking, P is positively correlated with q/Ksat the same location in the unsaturated region. In the saturated region, the spatial distribution of Kscan significantly affect the position and shape of the phreatic surface. We therefore conclude that heterogeneity can cause some parts of the hillslope to be sensitive to external hydraulic stimuli(e.g., rainfall and reservoir level change), and other parts of the hillslope to be insensitive. This is crucial to explaining why slopes with similar geometries would show different responses to the same hydraulic stimuli, which is significant to hillslope stability analysis.