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rockfall taiwan

From time to time, extremely instructive films on natural hazard risks appear on the internet, how horrible they sometimes might be though. An impressive example is this movie showing a rockfall in Taiwan in August 2013. Such movies help to actually see the behaviour of large rocks impacting an asphalt road. Such observations are rare and help to improve models that are used to predict the runout distance and energies of large falling rocks. In the beginning of this movie, one can also see the rock mass detaching in the release zone (upper centre in the movie frame after 0:03 seconds).

Rockyfor3D allows to simulate the rockfall on roads and comparison of the risk in a situation with and without protective measures such as nets and forest. This provides all the infomation needed to conduct cost-benefit studies of protective measures. How to quantify the risk is explained in a documentation of the Swiss Federal roads office (available in German, French, Italian and English). Different case studies in Switzerland, France and Austria show that a protection forest along main roads easily add up to 1000 $ per year per ha.

 

Here is a relatively stable film showing rebound heights and distances, as well as the stochastic nature, of falling rocks in the Grand Couloir on the Mont Blanc. It shows very well that on steep bedrock and talus (or scree) slopes, rebounds can be impressivily high and long (> 40 m).

rockfall grand couloir