Hillslope materials and processes / Склоновые материалы и процессы

The study of hillslopes is of concern to many scientists - geologists, pedologists, hydrologists, engineers, and geomorphologists. As a result the literature on the subject is dispersed through many books and journals and the approaches to the subject are varied. In writing this text I have attempted to draw on all the relevant disciplines and particularly to use the contributions of the exponents of rock and soil mechanics. Work by geomorphologists during the last twenty years has concentrated on the study of processes: I hope to modify this concern by emphasising the importance of rock and soil resistance to erosion and in so doing to re-assert the importance of geological influences on hillslope forms and development.
Considerable attention has been paid to the study of landslides because they are important as processes modifying the landscape; they are of economic significance — direct and indirect costs of landslides in the United States alone have been estimated to exceed $1000000000 per year at 1976 prices; and landslides also provide an opportunity for quantitative study of the forces acting on hillslopes. <...>