The acute slope safety problems faced by Hong Kong are largely the result of dense urban development in a hilly terrain, high seasonal rainfall and the legacy of a large number of potentially substandard man-made slopes mostly formed before the 1970's without proper geotechnical input and control. On average, some 200 to 300 slope failures are reported to the Geotechnical Engineering Office every year. These provide an invaluable source of information for improving the understanding of slope failures. A systematic landslide investigation programme was recently introduced by the Geotechnical Engineering Office to examine all the reported landslides and identify deserving cases for further studies. This paper gives an overview of the framework of the landslide investigation programme and outlines some of the follow-up actions taken to enhance slope engineering practice as well as the slope safety management system in the light of lessons learnt from studies of landslides.
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