Multiyear time-lapse ERT to study short- and long-term landslide hydrological dynamics

摘要

The geology of the "Vence" landslide (0.8 million m(3), south-eastern France) explains the complex hydrology of the site which plays a key role in the destabilization of the slope (water circulation within the sliding mass, fluid exchanges between superficial layers and deep karstic aquifer through faults). To understand fluid circulations within the unstable slope, a 9.5-year multi-parametric survey was set up. The survey combines electrical resistivity tomography (daily acquisition), rainfall records since 2006 and boreholes monitoring groundwater level since 2009. The objective of this work is to present an automated clustering analysis applied to the ERT data enabled to locate geological units displaying distinct hydrogeological behaviours. Clustering analysis, based on a hierarchical ascendant classification (HAC), helped to simplify the ERT section isolating three groups of apparent resistivity values. Comparing the variations of these clusters' behaviours in time to the variations of the groundwater levels on site, we identified hydrogeological units. The role of the faults cutting the substratum is thereby highlighted. It is the simultaneous analysis of such a large real dataset that allowed obtaining robust results characteristic of the long-term behaviour of the natural hydrogeological system. This type of qualitative information on the variability of the slope hydrogeological behaviour both spatially and temporally is crucial to help improving the conversion of resistivity data into hydrologic quantities. Indeed, the definition of petrophysical models to convert ERT measurements into hydrological measurements should be site-specific and take into account the spatial and temporal variability of the medium. In this work, we show a method that can also help to focus on the areas in depth that have different levels of permeability and observe how the saturation degree evolves in time. This can be used to optimize the location of additional instrumentation (such as temperature probes and chemical sampling) and, thus, help in the prevention of the risk in such problematic areas.