Inaugural lectures
Wednesday February 10, 2010 at 5.00pm - Lecture Theatre T.0.03, Wolfson Building
How to Predict Landslides
Professor Neil Dixon, Civil and Building Engineering
Annually, landslides result in thousands of deaths world-wide and many thousands of people are made homeless. They also damage infrastructure leading to the breakdown of basic services such as water supply and transport, which cost billions of pounds to repair.
There is an evident need to provide an early warning of landslides in order to enable evacuation of vulnerable people and to protect infrastructure.
In this lecture Professor Dixon will explain the factors that cause a slope to become unstable and he will explore how knowledge of these factors can be used to predict landslides.
The lecture will use examples of natural and constructed slopes taken from Professor Dixon’s research, conducted over the last 27 years. Topics will include mechanisms of failure, impact of changing climate and development of a landslide early warning system.