Managing Rockfall Risks in the National Parks
Abstract
In National Park Service managed land across the country, rockfall affects roads, trails, and other infrastructure related facilities. Rockfall is a recurrent and frequent hazard in areas of spectacular landscape and high relief. Rockfall risk reduction strategies in the National Park Service include an Unstable Slope Management Program for transportation corridor risk reduction, quantitative risk estimation for specific rockfall hazards, and monitoring of potential rockfall areas with vibrating wire crackmeters. Over ten National Park Service units are experimenting with the geotechnical asset management Unstable Slope Management Program decision support toolset to enable opportunities for proactive management of a hazard that has historically been purely reacted to. In areas where rockfall hazards with high potential consequences have been identified, rapid quantitative risk estimation techniques are helping managers put rockfall risk into a societal context. Rock fracture monitoring with vibrating wire crackmeters is shedding light on rockfall source areas and may help us better understand triggering mechanisms, the extent of thermoelastic rock deformation, and potentially aid in identifying pre-failure warning signs. Through these efforts, the National Park Service strives to reduce risk from rockfall hazards in our majestic public lands.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMNH53A..04B
- Keywords:
-
- 1810 Debris flow and landslides;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1826 Geomorphology: hillslope;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 4302 Geological;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4315 Monitoring;
- forecasting;
- prediction;
- NATURAL HAZARDS