Seismic performance evaluation of reinforced slopes

The field of earthquake engineering is moving towards performance-based concepts for design and evaluation of buildings and bridges, and also geotechnical structures. Rather than basing a design or evaluation on a single ‘design’ seismic event or hazard level, performance-based earthquake engineering considers all possible hazard levels, including those less likely and more likely to occur than the design level. This paper illustrates the way in which the basic concepts of performance-based earthquake engineering can be applied to an evaluation of a reinforced slope. In doing so, it illustrates the practical use of a model for prediction of the permanent displacement of reinforced slopes that is described in a companion paper.