Print Email Facebook Twitter Impact of climate change on engineered slopes for infrastructure: Computer model Title Impact of climate change on engineered slopes for infrastructure: Computer model Author Van Esch, J. Corporate name STOWA Date 2012-04-01 Abstract This report assesses the consequences of droughts and periods of heavy precipitation for embankments. The proposed assessment procedure couples an agro-meteorological model based on the Penmann-Monteith expression to a groundwater flow model based on Dupuit's approximation. This approach is justified by the fact that the flow process through the unsaturated zone of an embankment is very complex due to highly varying meteorological conditions and soil heterogeneity and the available data can not support more advanced Richards calculations. Moreover, a comparison between both models for a peat dike application shows that the Dupuit model gives more robust results than a Richards model and is computationally more efficient. For this application extreme water table positions and related stability under wet and dry conditions are calculated and compared with measurements. Climate change will alter the boundary conditions and a tipping point analysis shows that the dike under consideration fails if the evapotranspiration increases by a factor two. Subject climate changegroundwater flowdikesdraught Classification TKS00 To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e619e958-ae95-4321-8a24-389ecae28325 Publisher Deltares Source Deltares report 1201351-008-GEO-0001 Part of collection Hydraulic Engineering Reports Document type report Rights (c) 2012 Deltares Files PDF 1201351-008.pdf 5.07 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:e619e958-ae95-4321-8a24-389ecae28325/datastream/OBJ/view