Learning more lessens from devastating Hengtaiyu landslide at gourd-shaped fill storage site on December 20, 2015 in dry season

Abstract

A devastating landslide disaster in fill soil slope occurred on December 20, 2015 at Hengtaiyu Industrial Park, Shenzhen, P. R. China (SCMP 2015; UNNC 2015). Soil fills of 2.7 million m3 in volume forming the upper portion of the gourd-shaped fill storage site rapidly slipped in a motion resembling a huge mass of fluid material flowing out of a narrow gate from a large reservoir. The soil debris destroyed and buried 33 buildings on the vast flat ground at least 300 m to the failed slope toe, which resulted in 73 fatalities, 4 missing, and 17 injured. A government team investigated the disaster and published the forensic report on July 15, 2016. It concluded the presence of excessive pore water (and pressure) in the fill soils mainly responsible for the failure. This report led to the sentencing to up to 20 years in jail of 45 individuals who involved in the design, construction and management of the slope on May 5, 2017. Since beginning, the author has also investigated the landslide independently. This paper presents some results showing that much more lessons can be learned in addition to those given in the government report. These lessons can be importance to science, engineering and society and would benefit people in this region and globally. [http://www.hkges.org/JTC1_2nd/files/Papers/Extened/13_YueZQ-SZ-Landslide-extended-abstract.pdf]