BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Geotechnical Engineering
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable Urban Living with Adaptation Measures in Anticipation Against Climate Change: Volume 2View all 5 articles
Rainfall Duration Effect on Slope Stability of Unsaturated Silty Sand Soil
Provisionally accepted
Bramantyo Eko Prabowo1
Fitri Rachmayani1
Abdul Halim Hamdany1Erly Bahsan1
Martin Wijaya2Widjojo Adi Prakoso1Wiwik Rahayu1
Nurly Gofar3Eriko Dewangga4
Alfrendo Satyanaga4*- 1Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia
- 2Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Bandung, Indonesia
- 3Universitas Bina Darma, Palembang, Indonesia
- 4Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
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Landslides and slope instability events in Indonesia frequently occur during the rainy season. The relationship between rain and the landslide phenomenon is closely related to the ability of rainwater to infiltrate the soil, which in turn affects slope stability. The objective of this study is to assess the duration of water infiltration through unsaturated soil conditions. Samples were taken from the western region of Indonesia and classified as silty sand (SM). Advanced laboratory testing was carried out to obtain the unsaturated soil properties. Limited studies were performed in the past on the influence of different rainfall durations on seepage and slope stability. In this study, numerical simulation includes the application of rainfall on the ground surface for 3 different durations in one-day, i.e., 6-hour, 12-hour, and 24-hour simulations. The groundwater table is located at a depth of 5 meters below the surface. The increase in groundwater level and pore water pressure will reduce the suction force in the soil, therefore decreasing the factor of safety (FoS) of the Slope. The most significant decrease in FoS occurs in the 6-hour simulation, while the effect on FoS in the 24-hour simulation is not significant. This occurs due to the high intensity of rain during the shorter rainy period. After the rainy conditions, the FoS gradually rises and stabilizes on the sixth day, reaching an FoS of 1.86. This work identifies areas where silt-sand lithology predominates, along with high rainfall intensity and susceptibility to landslides, providing important information to guide mitigation measures.
Keywords: rainfall, slope stability, sustainability, Climate Change, Unsaturated soil
Received: 05 Aug 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Prabowo, Rachmayani, Hamdany, Bahsan, Wijaya, Prakoso, Rahayu, Gofar, Dewangga and Satyanaga. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Alfrendo Satyanaga
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