Jose Luis Pastor Navarro

• PhD. Eng.
• Professor (Associate) at University of Alicante

Landslides in the Northern Andes of Ecuador appear frequently due to the geological conditions of the area, like the strong movement that occurred on February 12, 2021 in the Chunchi canton. This landslide event has been one of the largest in the region, as it covered an approximate area of 115.35 ha, based on a combination of movements. The presen...

The liquidity index is a crucial factor in geotechnical engineering used to assess soil behavior under varying loading conditions. It provides valuable information about a soil's deformability when subjected to loads, which is vital for structural and foundation design. In the domain of soil-cement, especially within the deep mixing method (DMM), v...

The construction of basement walls using discontinuous staged berms is based on excavating the central zone of a lot and leaving a lateral berm—which is then removed in phases with unexcavated sections (buttresses) remaining until a concrete wall is completed in the excavated areas. It is a commonly used technique in many nations, but its use is un...

The province of Chimborazo located in the northern Andes of Ecuador presents many intrinsic factors, which contribute to the occurrence of mass movements, leaving in many of the cases registered damages of materials and loss of life. The recent landslide of March 26, 2023, in the Alausí canton is an event of great interest due to the magnitude of t...

Landslides are destructive geohazards to people and infrastructure, resulting in hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars of damage every year. Therefore, mapping the rate of deformation of such geohazards and understanding their mechanics is of paramount importance to mitigate the resulting impacts and properly manage the associated risks. In th...

Land subsidence accompanying groundwater extraction is a complex and increasing environmental issue worldwide. To explain the phenomenon to a young (over 10 years of age) and adult non-expert audience is a difficult, and in turn, an important challenge. Therefore, a scale-model experiment to enhance dissemination of land subsidence due to groundwat...

Industrial waste generated by the natural stone industry when working with limestone and dolostone is mainly composed of calcium carbonate and calcium magnesium carbonate. This mineral composition makes soil stabilization a potential use of the natural stone industry waste. However, much research must be carried out to fully understand the aptitude...

The city of Chone, being situated on the Ecuadorian coast, was affected due to the close-by epicenter of the earthquake of 16 April 2016, which reached a magnitude of Mw 7.8. This catastrophic event presented settlements in the ground, sand boils and land subsidence, being the most damaging in a variety of civil works among these several buildings....

Las líneas ferroviarias pueden verse afectadas por procesos de origen geológico o geotécnico (e.g. movimientos de ladera o asien-tos). Estos procesos se manifiestan en la superficie del terreno a través de deformaciones que pueden a su vez afectar a las infra-estructuras suprayacentes y al funcionamiento normal del servicio. La identificación de es...

Las líneas ferroviarias pueden verse afectadas por procesos de origen geológico o geotécnico (e.g. movimientos de ladera o asien-tos). Estos procesos se manifiestan en la superficie del terreno a través de deformaciones que pueden a su vez afectar a las infra-estructuras suprayacentes y al funcionamiento normal del servicio. La identificación de es...

The city of Portoviejo in coastal Ecuador was severely affected during the April 16, 2016, Pedernales earthquake (Mw 7.8). Various co-seismic liquefaction phenomena occurred, inducing lateral spreading, sand boils, ground subsidence, and sinkholes in soils with poor geotechnical quality in the alluvial and alluvial–colluvial sedimentary environment...

Many bridges and other structures worldwide present a lack of maintenance or a need for reha-bilitation. The first step in the rehabilitation process is to perform a bridge inspection to know the bridge′s current state. Routine bridge inspections are usually based only on visual recognition. In this paper, a methodology for bridge inspections in co...

Sediment budgets and morphological channel adjustments are closely related to changes in stream power. In ephemeral channels, whose geomorphic response depends on the magnitude and frequency of hydrological events isolated in time, such relationships are often difficult to establish. This study sought to quantitatively relate morphological adjustme...

Characterisation of a rock mass requires data from the intact rock along with the discontinuities. Assuming that the discontinuities are planar, its characterisation requires its number and orientation. This leads to the analysis of the normal spacing, the persistence and the roughness, among others. The geometrical analysis of the surface enables...

The liquid limit is a key property of fine soils closely related to the stress-strain behaviour and other relevant characteristics of soils such as the expansive potential. There are two standardized methods for its determination, the Casagrande cup and the fall cone test, among which there are many correlations that offer heterogeneous results. In...

Stream power represents the rate of energy expenditure along a stream reach and can be calculated using topographic data acquired via structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). This study sought to quantitatively relate morphological adjustments in the Azohía Rambla, a gravel-bed ephemeral stream in southeaster...

p>In this work, a methodology proposed for the semiautomatic identification of discontinuities and the later kinematic and stability analyses is described through its application to a rocky railway line cutting. Image acquisition has been performed using a six-rotors unmanned aerial vehicle for their subsequent photogrammetric restitution by means...

La construcción de muros de sótano mediante bataches es una técnica ampliamente empleada en muchos países, sin embargo, no existe normativa que la regule, ni estudios científicos que avalen su uso. Con el fin de aumentar la productividad, la tendencia en la ejecución de este tipo de construcciones es realizar las excavaciones parciales con las máxi...

Se presenta la experiencia educativa empleando Kahhot! como instrumento dinamizador en el Grado de Ingeniería Civil de la UA. Esta titulación se caracteriza por la tendencia hacia una enseñanza tradicional, mediante lecciones magistrales y exámenes finales. El contexto es un grupo de 58 estudiantes de primer curso durante el segundo semestre del cu...

Las visitas a obra y salidas de campo son habituales en las asignaturas del área de Ingeniería del Terreno del Grado en Ingeniería Civil y del Máster Universitario en Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de la Universidad de Alicante. Esta actividad complementaria se ha considerado fundamental para que los estudiantes tuvieran un primer contact...

Interpretation of land subsidence time-series to understand the evolution of the phenomenon and the existing relationships between triggers and measured displacements is a great challenge. Continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is a powerful signal processing method mainly suitable for the analysis of individual nonstationary time-series. CWT expands t...

Two earth fissures appeared in Murcia province (southeastern Spain) after the flood occurred because of a heavy downpour on 28 September 2012. In this area, located within the Guadalentín Valley, up to 212 L m−2 was reported that day. More than 200 agricultural exploitations were destroyed by the flooding, with a devastating effect on many infrastr...

Earth fissures are pervasive cracks that develop on valley floors as a consequence of land subsidence associated with extensive groundwater withdrawal. To capture geometrical, geological and geotechnical information of ground fissures is of paramount importance for their characterization. Recent advances in remote sensing techniques and the accessi...

Advanced Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (A-DInSAR) techniques and 3-D groundwater flow and geomechanical models are integrated to improve our knowledge about the Tertiary detritic aquifer of Madrid (TDAM). In particular, the attention is focused on the Manzanares-Jarama well field, located to the northwest of Madrid, which ex...

A novel methodological approach to calibrate and validate three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) groundwater flow and geomechanical models has been implemented using Advanced Differential Interferometric SAR (A-DInSAR) data. In particular, we show how A-DInSAR data can be effectively used to (1) constrain the model set-up in evaluating the area...

En este trabajo se describe una metodología propuesta para la identificación semiautomática de discontinuidades y el posterior análisis cinemático y de estabilidad a través de su aplicación a una trinchera excavada en roca de una línea de ferrocarril. La adquisición de imágenes se ha llevado a cabo mediante un Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS...

The natural stone industry is one of the most important industries in southeast Spain. Due to this industrial activity, about 500 000 tonnes of inert materials are generated every year from cutting and polishing natural stones. Although this industrial waste is a non-polluting material, put it in a landfill presents a strong environmental impact in...

Bridge construction on areas affected by landslides is a challenge, as deep foundations do not guarantee the success of the performed design. In such cases, it is important to identify the area affected by the instability and the depth of the sliding surface. In this case study, a 80 m reinforced concrete long bridge with three intermediate piers s...

Geologists and engineers traditionally characterise rock slopes through laboratory tests and data captured during fieldwork and further cabinet work. They find, however, difficulties in capturing data in terms of safety, objectiveness and reliability. However, the continuous improvement of remote sensing techniques is changing the rock slope stabil...

The integration of data from different sources can be very helpful in understanding the mechanism, the geometry, the kinematic, and the area affected by complex instabilities, especially when the available geotechnical information is limited. In this work, the suitability of different techniques for the study of a deep-seated landslide affecting a...

This work describes a new procedure aimed to semi-automatically identify clusters of active persistent scatterers and preliminarily associate them with different potential types of deformational processes over wide areas. This procedure consists of three main modules: (i) ADAfinder, aimed at the detection of Active Deformation Areas (ADA) using Per...

En esta red se ha desarrollado una experiencia educativa consistente en la implantación del aprendizaje basado en proyectos en la asignatura de segundo curso del Máster Universitario en Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos. La asignatura seleccionada se adecua perfectamente al propósito de esta experiencia, pues se trata de una asignatura tecno...

En otros trabajos de investigación se ha constatado que el abandono paulatino de una asignatura deriva en malos resultados académicos. Esta investigación propugna que dicho abandono se materializa inicialmente en la no asistencia a las actividades sin presencialidad obligatoria. Por dicha razón, el objetivo fundamental de este trabajo es determinar...

La asignatura Geotecnia de Obras Lineales, de segundo curso del Máster en Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, presenta un alumnado muy maduro, donde éstos aplican una gran variedad de conocimientos geotécnicos adquiridos en asignaturas del área de Ingeniería del Terreno cursadas previamente. Es por ello por lo que se ha considerado una asigna...

En trabajos previos, elaborados por este grupo de investigación, se ha constatado que el abandono paulatino de una asignatura deriva habitualmente en malos resultados académicos. La tesis aquí planteada mantiene que dicho abandono se materializa inicialmente en la no asistencia a las actividades sin presencialidad obligatoria. Por ello, el principa...

Naked eye rock recognition is an essential activity for professionals and students of geosciences, architecture and engineering. Through a hand holding rock specimen, it is usually required not only to identify the type of rock but recognize their texture and understand its expected properties mechanical and petrophysical properties. Although a wid...

Libreto Geolodía Alicante 2019: Busot

Geomechanics classifications are used to perform a preliminary assessment of rock slope stability for different purposes in civil and mining engineering. Among all existing rock mass classifications, slope mass rating (SMR) is one of the most commonly used for slopes. Although SMR is a geomechanics classification applied worldwide, often some misap...

This work describes a procedure developed in the framework of the EU project “Multi-scale observation and monitoring of railway infrastructure threats” (MOMIT, 2018) to semi-automatically identify clusters of persistent scatterers and preliminarily associate them to different potential types of geological-geotechnical hazards affecting infrastructu...

The natural stone industry generates large amounts of industrial waste every year. Limestone powder produced by the activity of this industry is dumped into landfills, generating an environmental impact that could be reduced by using this waste as a binder in building materials. In the present work, the use of this by-product as an addition for soi...

In recent years, there was an increasing number of studies focusing on rockfalls due to their impacts on social and sustainable development. This work carries out a three-dimensional (3D) simulation of rockfalls at a cultural heritage site nearby the village of Cortes de Pallás (Valencian Community, East Spain). The simulation is based on data coll...

English: Liquefaction is an effect for which a saturated soil suffers a severe loss of shear strength due to an increase of pore-water pressure. This effect, which generally affects loose granular soils, is usually produced by cyclic loading such as that the induced by earthquakes. In Spain, three different national standards plus Eurocode can curr...

Finding new ways to quantify discontinuity persistence values in rock masses in an automatic or semi-automatic manner is a considerable challenge, as an alternative to the use of traditional methods based on measuring patches or traces with tapes. Remote sensing techniques potentially provide new ways of analysing visible data from the rock mass. T...

La asignatura de Geotecnia de Obras Hidráulicas es una asignatura optativa de cuarto curso del Grado en Ingeniería Civil. Esta asignatura es la aplicación práctica de las asignaturas del Área de Ingeniería del Terreno estudiadas en cursos anteriores. Debido a este enfoque aplicado de la asignatura, en el que se pretende que los estudiantes utilicen...

Asignaturas tales como la Mecánica del Suelo y las Rocas del grado en Ingeniería Civil de la Universidad de Alicante, presentan una importante carga experimental en su programación. Estas actividades prácticas son esenciales para la comprensión de los contenidos fuertemente conceptuales que se van introduciendo. El objetivo fundamental de esta inve...

Asignaturas tales como la Mecánica del Suelo y las Rocas del grado en Ingeniería Civil de la Universidad de Alicante, presentan una importante carga experimental en su programación. Estas actividades prácticas son esenciales para la comprensión de los contenidos fuertemente conceptuales que se van introduciendo. El objetivo fundamental de esta inve...

Los estudiantes del grado en Ingeniería Civil deben adquirir una serie de competencias y habilidades a lo largo del estudio de las diferentes asignaturas de la titulación. En la asignatura Geotecnia de Obras Hidráulicas, optativa de cuarto curso, el alumno debe aplicar los conceptos estudiados en cursos anteriores en las asignaturas del Área de Ing...

El presente trabajo plantea la identificación de los factores a mejorar en la evaluación del alumnado de la Enseñanza Superior mediante la evaluación desde la perspectiva el propio alumnado. Para ello, se diseñó una encuesta que los alumnos de tres asignaturas del Grado de Ingeniería Civil y del Máster de Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos re...

The continuous improvement of the remote sensing techniques is having a considerable impact on the characterization and monitoring of rock slopes. Rock slope characterization can be conducted by analysing the coordinates of the points or the mesh derived from point clouds. Previous works on rock slope characterization using 3D point clouds have foc...

The continuous improvement of remote sensing techniques is having a considerable impact on the characterization and monitoring of rock slopes. Rock slope characterization can be conducted by analysing the coordinates of the points or the mesh derived from point clouds. Previous works on rock slope characterization using 3D point clouds have focused...

Landslides can affect road infrastructures such as bridges, causing damages to its structures and, in some severe cases, the collapse of the whole or a part of the structure. In this work, a landslide-induced damage to a road bridge is presented. This bridge, which provides access to an industrial area in Alcoy (Spain), was built using precast beam...

Buildings, infrastructures and people settled on the top of urban slopes are vulnerable to damage caused by slope instabilities. Therefore, the assessment of landslide-induced damage is necessary to understand the level of risk exposure and the nature of the potential vulnerability to this natural hazard. Additionally, the study of the infras-truct...

This paper presents a study of skin friction change of cement pastes used for micropiles as a geotechnical foundation when grout surface is affected by sulfate attack. In this research skin friction coefficient between cement paste – cement paste was measured, studying change in friction depending on the initial roughness of samples. Tests were per...

Southeast of Spain was affected by a heavy downpour on 28th September 2012. That day, up to 212 litres of rain per square metre were reported in Murcia province. The flooding caused by this event caused three fatalities in the region and destroyed more than 200 agricultural exploitations and had a catastrophic impact to many infrastructures, collap...

At present, sustainability is of major importance in the cement industry, and the use of additions such as silica fume as clinker replacement contributes towards that goal. Special foundations, and particularly micropiles, are one of the most suitable areas for the use of sustainable cements. The aim of this research is to analyse the effects in th...

Tras la reacreditación del Máster Universitario en Ingeniería Geológica, los evaluadores propusieron una serie de medidas para mejorar el ingreso de estudiantes. Entre ellas destacan la eliminación de uno de los itinerarios de especialización actuales y la publicitación del máster en otras universidades. Como alternativa, se plantea un nuevo itiner...

El 6/04/2015 un desprendimiento en el vaso del embalse de Cortes de Pallás (Valencia) sepultó instalaciones de una central hidroeléctrica de Iberdrola dejando ocho meses incomunicada la población por carretera. Durante la emergencia, Iberdrola encargó un vuelo de reconocimiento del talud, aún inestable y peligroso, sin patrón específico. Sobre esta...

En el presente trabajo se recogen los resultados más significativos de la caracterización geológico-geotécnica y de la monitorización llevada en un talud afectado por procesos de erosión hídrica superficial y subsuperficial del término municipal de Elche (Alicante). El talud objeto de estudio se encuentra excavado en materiales limosos cubiertos po...

Los macizos heterogéneos tipo flysch, que están formados parcialmente por litologías margosas, presentan diversas inestabilidades en los taludes relacionadas directa o indirectamente con la degradación de estos materiales. Estos taludes presentan considerables diferencias tanto en las tasas como en la forma de la degradación. Esta cuestión ha sido...

Nowadays, one of the most popular ways to get a more sustainable cement industry is using additions as cement replacement. However, there are many civil engineering applications in which the use of sustainable cements is not extended yet, such as special foundations, and particularly micropiles, even though the standards do not restrict the cement...

Nowadays, the use of micropiles has undergone a great development. In general, they are made with cement grout, reinforced with steel tubing. In Spain, these grouts are prepared using OPC, although the standards do not forbid the use of other cements, like sustainable ones. Micropiles are in contact with soils and groundwater, in which the presence...

Alumno, Universidad de Alicante RESUMEN (ABSTRACT) Durante el curso académico 2015-16 se han generado un conjunto de herramientas multimedia para la mejora docente en las prácticas de reconocimiento de rocas de la asignatura Geología Aplicada a la Ingeniería Civil de primer curso del Grado de Ingeniería Civil por la Universidad de Alicante. En esta...

This paper presents a study on the possibility of using fly ash cement as grouts for micropiles. This type of special geotechnical work is commonly used for many applications. Generally, micropiles grouts are prepared using Portland cement, although the standards do not restrict the cement type to use, as long as they achieve a strength requirement...

Special foundations, most prominently micropiles and soil anchors, are frequently used in construction today. In Spain, the grout for these special technical applications is generally prepared with portland cement, although the codes and standards in place stipulate only the minimum compressive strength required, with no mention of cement type. Tho...

Today, the use of micropiles for different applications has become very common. In Spain, the cement grouts for micropiles are prepared using ordinary Portland cement and w:c ratio 0.5, although the micropiles standards do not restrict the cement type to use, provided that it reaches a certain compressive strength. In this study, the influence of u...