Reliability analysis of root-reinforced slopes

The use of vegetation is a bio-engineering sustainable measure for shallow landslides risk mitigation and slope erosion control. Root reinforcement can be modelled modifying conveniently the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion by means of a term, which represents the apparent cohesion related to the root tensile strength and to the spatial distribution of roots inside the soil. In order to verify the plants positive effect on slope stabilization, the authors carried out several slope stability deterministic analyses under seismic conditions, varying slope geometry and using the limit equilibrium methods. However, due to the inherent uncertainty and variability that characterize both soil and roots, the level of reliability of these bio-engineering techniques has to be investigated. For this purpose, a probabilistic analysis has also been performed by using the Monte Carlo simulation, in order to evaluate the effect of variability in the input design parameters.