Threat assessment before mass removal phenomena in a hillside sector. Case study: Cuesta Blanca neighborhood, Ocaña - Colombia

Abstract

This research included the evaluation of the threat to mass removal phenomena of a hillside sector in the municipality of Ocaña, Norte de Santander, Colombia. To carry out this research project, 4 phases were developed: identification of critical areas, determination of the morphometric characteristics of the study area, calculation of the physical and mechanical parameters of the soils and finally the development of models using the free version of the Slide software, under initial conditions that allowed calibrating each of the parameters and the final conditions. The objective of this research work was to establish the threat that the study area currently has and with this, to propose an update of zones susceptible to landslide phenomena in the municipality of Ocaña. This is an input that will determine, by adding the vulnerability analysis, the risk that the community living in the sector of the Cuesta Blanca neighborhood, Ocaña-Colombia, possesses. The findings of this study lead to the conclusion that: the study area is susceptible to being affected by landslide phenomena since the safety factor is less than 1.1 with a failure probability of 47.6%.