Environmental Problems and Development of Loess Cave Dwelling in West China

摘要

The loess plateau in China has a vast territory, integrated strata and large depth, which is rarely in the world. The plateau contains rich and generous resources in China. Cave dwellings are one of the traditional forms of residence. They have been continuously improved from ancient times to the present because the loess caves have the advantages of warm in winter and pleasant cool in summer, saving energy resource and arable land. It has bearing on protecting arable land and improving the people's living level in the west to develop cave dwellings. However, there exist some environmental geotechnical engineering problems to be considered in loess plateau of China. Such as soil erosion, debris flow, ravine by scouring, landslide, crack collapse, land subsidence, destruction of ecological environment, etc. So, it's necessary to pay our attention to the environmental geotechnical engineering problems for cave dwellings. This paper concludes several environmental geotechnical engineering problems of the cave dwellings in loess plateau, and proposes some advices on how to improve the cave dwelling.