Effect of rainfall to the groundwater and soil displacement

Abstract

Malaysia is located in Southeast Asia which received various rainfalls including heavy rainfall during Monsoon season with average yearly rainfall of 2500 millimeters. This paper presented the changes of groundwater and soil displacement affected by the various amount of rainfall at a slope under a transmission tower (pylon) which indirectly monitor the stability of the transmission tower itself. Three instruments are installed to observe the parameters under study which are rainfall, groundwater and soil displacement. Three years of hourly data are analyzed and observed during the dry and wet season. The study found that the fluctuated heavy rainfall has given no significant changes to the groundwater and displacement. However, the 15 hours of prolong rainfall has given significant effect as the groundwater increase 25 mm and soil displaced 12.65 mm. Besides, the groundwater is decreased about 2 mm during early morning to afternoon due to existing of transpiration activity done by vegetation and big trees near the slope. The shrink-swell behavior is highly affected by the sandy clayey SILT type of soil and occurred all day long depending on the amount of water stored and release gathered from rainfall and present of dew from its surroundings. © International Research Publication House.