Many slopes in the Alps are prone to rockfall and forests play a vital role in protecting objects such as (rail) roads and infrastructure against rockfall. Decision support tools are required to assess rockfall processes and to quantify the rockfall protection effect of forest stands. This paper presents results of an iterative sequence of tests and improvements of a coupled rockfall and forest...

In determining rockfall trajectories in the field, it is essential to calibrate and validate rockfall simulation software. This contribution presents an in situ device and a complementary Local Positioning System (LPS) that allow the determination of parts of the trajectory. An assembly of sensors (herein called rockfall sensor) is installed in the falling block recording the 3D accelerations a...

Rockfall hazard assessment is not simple to achieve in practice and sound, physically based assessment methodologies are still missing. The mobility of rockfalls implies a more difficult hazard definition with respect to other slope instabilities with minimal runout. Rockfall hazard assessment involves complex definitions for “occurrence probability” and “intensity”. This paper is an attempt to...

As rockfall can cause a great deal of damage, it is essential to know its spatial propagation. Rockfall models are sensitive to the resolution of input data i.e. the used digital terrain models (DTM). Nowadays, high resolution elevation data are area widely available from airborne laser scanning (ALS). ALS can even provide very accurate terrain information in forested areas. However, rockfall m...

When designing infrastructure, settlements or facilities in mountainous areas, rockfall hazard assessment is considered essential, as it is a major hazard worldwide. Rockfall hazard estimation can help greatly in the design of countermeasures, such as barriers and net fences, in order to protect the built environment, as well as for landuse planning. Rockfall modelling is considered an effectiv...

Tree-ring analysis has been used to reconstruct 22 years of rockfall behavior on an active rockfall slope near Saas Balen (Swiss Alps). We analyzed 32 severely injured trees (L. decidua, P. abies and P. cembra) and investigated cross-sections of 154 wounds. The intra-annual position of callus tissue and of tangential rows of traumatic resin ducts was determined in order to reconstruct the seaso...

The evaluation of the rockfall initiation mechanism and the simulation of the runout behavior is an important issue in the prevention and remedial measures for potential rockfall hazards in highway protection, in forest preservation, and especially in urban settlement areas. In most of the studies in the literature, the extent of the rockfall hazard was determined by various techniques basing o...

We examine rockfall susceptibility of folded strata in the Sevier fold-thrust belt exposed in American Fork Canyon in north-central Utah. Large-scale geologic mapping, talus production data, rock-mass-quality measurements, and historical rockfall data indicate that rockfall susceptibility is correlated with limb dip and curvature of the folded, cliff-forming Mississippian limestones. On fold li...

This article is a literature review dealing with the various ways that tree ring data can be used for analysis of rockfall activity. Typically, this type of research has been done using historical archives, lichenometric studies, or through frequency-volume statistics. The overall purpose of this paper is to present a literature review study about the current state of tree ring research as it p...

Rockfall impact is one of the fatal hazards in pipeline transportation of oil and gas. The deformation of oil and gas pipeline caused by rockfall impact was investigated using the finite element method in this paper. Pipeline deformations under radial impact, longitudinal inclined impact, transverse inclined impact, and lateral eccentric impact of spherical and cube rockfalls were discussed, re...