Landslide triggering, mobility, and monitoring in a changing climate

为评估加拿大对持续气候变化的脆弱性而进行的研究表明：a)即使在低碳的情况下，整个加拿大未来也将变暖，b)加拿大的北极地区将比加拿大南部变暖得快得多，c)整个春季、秋季和冬季，加拿大南部预计将变得更加潮湿，但夏季将更加干燥。温度和湿度的这些变化可能会对支撑公路、铁路、包含管道的土坡的稳定性产生深远影响，或者形成保留加拿大采矿业废物的水坝。迫切需要进行研究，以确定气候在引发不稳定的机制中的作用，以及气候对碎片移动的影响，并开发新的创新监测工具，以观察和管理气候对我国基础设施的岩土部分的影响。未来五年的补充项目将：a)确定在尾矿坝坍塌、降雨引起的滑坡期间和海底滑坡中触发液化的基本物理条件；b)探索定义干燥和饱和颗粒流、广泛级配的泥石流和液化土壤的剪切特性的微观力学，以确定可用水等气候因素如何影响碎屑的速度和最大远距离伸展。C)开发和应用尖端图像分析和分布式光纤应变测量技术，以分析铁路轨道几何形状的季节性退化以及管道中轴向应变和弯曲应变的累积，以应对气候驱动的滑坡运动，以确定更安全和更具成本效益的缓解措施。这项工作将引入新的分析方法、实验技术和数据来验证数值模拟结果，并将影响或定义加拿大和国际对这些问题的学术和设计实践。加拿大庞大而成功的工程服务咨询业之所以成为可能，是因为获得了具有理学硕士或更高学历的高素质人员。这项建议旨在培训总共17名HQP(3名博士、9名研究硕士、5名UG)，使其成为加拿大未来在理解和缓解气候变化对我国土木工程基础设施中岩土工程组成部分的影响方面的领导者。建议中列出的四名本科生HQP是一项非常成功和行之有效的战略的延续，该战略旨在从代表不足的群体中招募优秀的候选人进入皇后大学土木工程研究生课程。

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.