Landslide triggering, mobility, and monitoring in a changing climate

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Research conducted to assess Canada's vulnerability to continued climate changes indicates that: a) all of Canada is projected to get warmer in the future, even under a low-carbon scenario, b) Canada's Artic will warm much faster than Canada's South, and c) Southern Canada is projected to get much wetter throughout the spring, fall, and winter months, but much drier in the summer. These changes in temperature and moisture have the potential for profound impacts on the stability of the soil slopes supporting highways, railways, containing pipelines, or forming the dams that retain the waste from Canada's mining industry. Research is urgently needed to define the role of climate in the mechanics of triggering of instability, impact of climate on the mobility of the debris, and to develop innovative new monitoring tools to observe and manage the effect of climate on the geotechnical components of our infrastructure. Complementary projects of the next five years will  a) Define the fundamental physics working together to lead to the triggering of liquefaction in the failure of tailings dams, during rainfall-induced landslides, and within submarine landslide flow failures b) Explore the micromechanics defining the shear properties of dry and saturated granular flows, widely-graded debris flows, and liquefied soil to define how climatic factors such as water availability influences the velocity and maximum distal reach of the debris. c) Develop and apply cutting-edge image analysis and distributed fiber optic strain measurement technologies to analyse seasonal degradation of railway track geometry and accumulation of axial and flexural strains in pipelines in response to climate-driven landslide motion to define safer and more cost effective mitigation measures. The work will introduce new methods of analysis, experimental techniques, and data to validate numerical modelling outcomes, and will influence or define Canadian & international scholarship and design practices for these problems. Canada's large and successful engineering service consulting industry is made possible by access to highly qualified personnel with qualifications at the MSc level or higher. This proposal aims to train a total of 17 HQP (3 PhD, 9 Research MSc, 5 UG) to become Canada's future leaders in understanding and mitigating the effects of climate change on the geotechnical engineering components of our Civil Engineering infrastructure. The four undergraduate HQP listed in the proposal are a continuation of a highly successful and proven strategy to recruit outstanding candidates from under-represented groups into graduate studies in Civil Engineering at Queen's University.