Macková A. & Bednarik M., 2021: Stability assessment as a tool for design of landslide early warning system in Liptovská Štiavnica village. Acta Geologica Slovaca, 13, 2, 205–214.

Stability assessment as a tool for design of landslide early warning system in Liptovská Štiavnica village

Anna Macková & Martin Bednarik

Department of Engineering Geology, Hydrogeology and Applied Geophysics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia; mackova98@uniba.sk; mbednarik@uniba.sk

Abstract

With its complicated geological structure and relief, The Slovak Republic represents a country with high occurrence of different types of slope deformations which appear hazardous from the socio-economic point of view. One of these slope deformations is an active landslide located near the village of Liptovská Štiavnica directly jeopardising workers, livestock, and the property of a local agricultural cooperative Ludrová - Liptovská Štiavnica. Using an engineering geological investigation, an analysis of the amount of precipitation in the wider area, groundwater regime observations and inclinometer measurements, the data were obtained in order to calculate the factor of safety (FS) in geotechnical software GEO 5 and thus assess the stability of the landslide. The analysis of the amount of precipitation showed that the extreme precipitation amounts recorded during the year 2010 preceded the last reactivation of the landslide on March 14^th, 2011. The results from groundwater regime observations showed that groundwater level in the landslide rises within the higher precipitation amounts. As stability calculations demonstrate, the stability of the landslide is conditioned by groundwater level in the landslide body. Based on stability calculations, the critical groundwater level at 3 meters below the surface has been established. Although more accurate stability assessment requires long-term monitoring, the results of this study support the inevitability of remediation works which will secure permanent stability of the landslide and provide a useful tool for future early warning system.

Key words: engineering geological investigation, landslide monitoring, stability calculations, factor of safety, early warning system, Liptovská Štiavnica

Manuscript received: 2021-09-15

Revised version accepted: 2021-12-14