Slope stability assessment in the seismically and landslide-prone road segment of Gerese to Belta, Rift Valley, Ethiopia.

Slope instability on several sections of the Gerese-Belta route in Southern Ethiopia poses a major risk to infrastructure and safety. This research was aimed at evaluating certain areas of the road susceptible to slope instability. Through intensive fieldwork including geological analysis, surveys, and testing, three crucial slope portions were determined. Both limit equilibrium and finite element calculations demonstrated that these sections are problematic under different circumstances. The slope modification analysis shows that the safety factor increases as bench widths and the number of benches increase. In the slope section D1S3, this factor reached 1.222 when two benches measuring 5 meters in width were used on slide 2D. This initially showed an unstable safety factor of 0.26. Three benches of the same width were used under slide 2D. This resulted in a safety factor of 1.219. At the slope section (D1S2), flattening of the slope angle from initial 45° to 35°, 28°, 25° and 18° increases the factor of safety of the slope from initial 0.284 to 0.77, 0.89, 1.022, and 1.151 respectively under slide 2D analysis. At the slope section (D2S1), flattening the slope angle from initial 46° to 35°, 25°, 23°, and 20° increases the safety factor from initial 0.412 to 0.684, 0.920, 1.02, and 1.315 respectively. Based on the analysis of the study results, it can be concluded that the identified slope sections are susceptible to failure under actual field scenarios, depending on the conditions under which they are predicted to occur. According to this study, the Benching method is an economical method for mitigating soil slopes, as a result of which it was recommended to be used.

Groundwater potential assessment in the Blue Nile River catchment, Ethiopia, using geospatial and multi-criteria decision-making techniques.

Groundwater supplies have been exploited because of global water shortage. Therefore, effective management of water resources is crucial. Identifying potential groundwater regions in arid and mountainous terrains is challenging for many developing nations because of a lack of financial and human resources. An integrated strategy using remote sensing, geographic information systems, and multi-criteria decision analysis of the hierarchical analytical process was used to identify potential zones for groundwater in the Gulufa Watershed, Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia, which covers 1700 km2. Nine groundwater-influencing thematic layers were produced from conventional and satellite data, including lineament density, lithology, slope, geomorphology, soil, land use/land cover, drainage density, rainfall, and elevation. Satty scale values for the thematic layers and their classes were determined based on experts' opinions and literature. Thematic maps were integrated based on their weights and rates to produce a potential zone map using ArcGIS weighted overlay spatial function tool. According to the results, the prospect zone map consists of 383 km2 of very high, 865 km2 of high, 350 km2 of moderate, 58 km2 of low, and 0.3 km2 of poor zones. Validation of the potential zone map using existing boreholes yielded a close agreement, demonstrating the method's accuracy. According to the map removal sensitivity analysis results, the potential zone was more sensitive to lithology than other thematic layers. The map created in the research region can be an essential reference for identifying potential locations for additional groundwater resource exploration, planning, and management.