On the soil suction modeling in weatrhered gneiss affected by landsliding.

The paper presents a numerical procedure to estimate, at a test site, the hydraulic properties and the net rainfall flux across the ground surface, by modelling the suction regime observed by tensiometers. The test site is located in an area affected by landsliding that involves highly heterogenous gneissic soils. Within this area, suction modelling is a fundamental issue as the movements of the landslides are strictly related to transient perched water tables directly linked to rainfall. The numerical procedure adopts an inverse analysis to model the observed suction regime and highlights the role played by the heterogeneity of the soil and by the net flux across the ground surface on the unsaturated flow characteristics at the slope scale.