A short review of probabilistic slope stability analysis considering spatial variability of geomaterial parameters

Soil is a basic geomaterial in the geotechnical and geological engineering. It has been widely realized that there exists inherent spatial variability in the soil parameters for geotechnical engineering design and practice. Compared with the conventional deterministic analysis that is unable to take the spatial variability of geotechnical parameters into account, probabilistic/reliability analysis has become a mainstream way to evaluate the slope stability quantitatively in a more rational manner. This paper aims to review the research progress of probabilistic analysis of slope stability in spatially variable soils in the recent twenty years. Firstly, probabilistic analysis methods for slope stability considering the spatial variability of geotechnical parameters are systematically presented. Then, typical applications concerning the probabilistic analysis of slope stability in geotechnical engineering are reviewed. Based on the previous literature, several research prospects in the reliability assessment of slope stability are proposed.