SUPERVISOR: Christian ZANGERL 

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Christoph HOLLINGER 

The aim of this project is to investigate landslides in high mountain regions, with a particular focus on the environmental changes driven by climate change. Special attention will be given to the thawing of permafrost, glacier retreat, and extreme precipitation events, which are significant triggers for landslides in rock masses that are highly sensitive to climatic variations. The research will primarily focus on large-scale rockfall processes and deep-seated rockslides. 

Building on a comprehensive review of the current state of research, the study seeks to analyse the interplay between predisposing geological conditions and the deformation and failure processes of deep-seated rockslides and large-scale rockfalls. Particular emphasis will be placed on the effects of ice or sediment loading at the slope toe, extreme precipitation events, and the temporal evolution of progressive failure processes, rockslide/rockfall formation, and variable deformation behaviour over time.

The following key research questions outline the scope of the investigation: 

1. How do geological, hydrogeological, and structural pre-conditions influence the formation of rockslides and rockfalls?

2. How does fracture growth, propagation, and coalescence lead to failure initiation and the development of a shear zone in deep-seated rockslides or the rupture surface in rockfall events?

3. What are the kinematic behaviours and deformation processes of deep-seated rockslides?

4. What is the impact of de-buttressing or buttressing effects on slope stability due to the loading/unloading of glacier ice and sediments, as well as the associated hydrogeological impacts?

5. How can the runout length of rockfall events be characterized, and what role does terrain properties play in influencing this behaviour?

To address these questions, several case studies will be selected and analysed using a combination of surface investigations (e.g., geological and geomorphological mapping) and subsurface exploration methods (e.g., geophysical surveys). Geodetic field surveys (e.g., tachymetry, GNSS) and monitoring campaigns (e.g., terrestrial LiDAR, UAV photogrammetry, GBInSAR) will also be conducted. Existing datasets from geological mapping, geodetic surveys, and slope deformation monitoring campaigns for the selected case studies will be utilized for further analysis. Additionally, the deformation and failure behaviour of these slope instabilities will be examined in detail using numerical modelling techniques, such as finite element and discrete element methods.

This study adopts a multidisciplinary approach to comprehensively analyse the deformation and failure processes of deep-seated rockslides and rockfall events. Alongside traditional geological fieldwork methods, the research will place a strong emphasis on modern remote sensing techniques, in situ investigations, and advanced numerical modelling.