| Abstract -- 
             
              Taiwan is full of hills and mountains, most of the roadway systems 
              are located in hilly areas. At the same time, Taiwan is rich in 
              precipitation, serious landslides or loss of foundation materials 
              often occur after rainfalls. The instability of the roadway slopes 
              directly affects the safety of the highway users. There have been 
              research efforts to establish policies for handling the safety of 
              roadway slopes and some of the research works are underway. Many 
              important sections of roadways have been monitored and analyzed 
              either due to previous failure or signs of potential failure. The 
              results of instrumentation have been used as a basis for the management 
              of these roadways. The objectives of this two-year research project 
              are to:(1) advance our capabilities in slope stability monitoring; 
              (2) to make sure that the instrumentation data substantially reflect 
              the actual conditions of the slope; (3) to improve cost effectiveness 
              of monitoring system; and (4) establish guidelines in developing 
              a warning system that incorporates the instrumentation system. The 
              execution of the first-year project started in April and ended in 
              December of 2002. Major tasks include: (1) literature collection 
              and organization; (2) evaluation of conventional slope stability 
              monitoring systems; (3) laboratory developments of fiber optic and 
              TDR sensors; (4) preliminary field implementation of fiber optic 
              and TDR sensor systems, and (5) development of guidelines for the 
              establishment of warning systems. A ground movement monitoring system 
              based on fiber optic gratings has been developed. A series of TDR 
              technology based sensor devices which include a ground disruption 
              movement sensor, an extensometer, a ground water level sensor, and 
              a rainfall metering device have also been developed. The warning 
              system development which included classification of landslides types, 
              case histories on the use of a warning system, methodology of establishing 
              a warning system have been completed. This report describes details 
              of the background, contents and accomplishments of the research 
              in the first year.    |