The stratigraphic uncertainty and rotated anisotropy of soil properties exist widely in nature. Recent studies have shown that the slope stability was significantly influenced by these two uncertainties. However, there is no proper method for simulating these two uncertainties at the same time, and the influence of the two uncertainties has not been considered in previous unsaturated soil slope stability analysis. This paper aims to propose a coupled method for characterizing the stratigraphic uncertainty and rotated anisotropy of soil properties, and investigate the unsaturated soil slope stability considering the two uncertainties. Through a slope case, the proposed method for characterizing the two uncertainties is examined. The effect of rotational angle on the slope stability and groundwater table is studied. In addition, four different uncertainty considerations are chosen to compare their influence on the slope stability and groundwater table. The results show that the proposed method can well characterize the two uncertainties at the same time. The rotational anisotropy of soil properties has a substantial impact on the slope stability and groundwater table. The rotational angles corresponding to the maximum and minimum reliability index of slope depend on the uncertainty considerations in the slope stability analysis. The slope reliability index only considering stratigraphic uncertainty is the highest, and the slope reliability index considering stratigraphic uncertainty and rotated anisotropy of soil properties is the lowest.
Alpine regions' groundwater is crucial to the worldwide hydrological cycle. However, due to the harsh environmental conditions, the distribution and evolution characteristics await clarification. The study area was selected to be the Nagqu River Basin in the Nu-Salween River's source region. In 2019-2021, we gathered 88,000 monitoring data from nine observation wells and examined the spatiotemporal groundwater table changes in various permafrost zones and freeze- thaw cycles. During the freezing period, entirely frozen period, thawing period, and entirely thawed period, the groundwater table change rates in the permafrost zone were 2.14, 1.54, 1.55, and 2.01 times larger than in the seasonal frost zone, and fluctuation amplitudes were 1.97, 1.28, 1.01 and 1.31 times larger. The average groundwater table change rate and fluctuation amplitude were greatest during the entirely thawed period and lowest during the thawing period, with the maximum change rate reaching 3.64 cm/d during the entirely thawed period of 2019-2020 in the permafrost zone and the minimum change rate of 0.12 cm/d during the thawing period of 2019-2020 in the seasonal frost zone.