Dr Ellen Robson presents: Road slope stability in Nepal

Please register for the online zoom event here.

For Nepal, roads are fundamental infrastructure for development. To construct roads often requires excavation into the ground creating a cut slope (also known as a road cutting). These cut slopes, if not properly engineered, can fail resulting in large social, economic, and environmental losses. The design of a road cutting in Nepal is often carried out according to guidelines published by the Department of Roads. However, these guidelines have not been developed using rigorous methods, they do not account for many important characteristics of a cutting, and they do not offer clear guidance to the engineers. My research aims to develop a comprehensive set of road construction guidelines which will be co-created with engineers in Nepal.

Bio for Dr Ellen Robson:

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience. My research focuses on developing stakeholder-focused guidance and methodologies to help mitigate landslides and improve slope stabilisation in lower-income countries. The guidance and methodologies are developed by working collaboratively with stakeholders, currently engaged in in Nepal and India, by employing a combination of methods including numerical analyses, geotechnical and geological mapping, and qualitative data collection. I have a particular interest in improving the resilience of road networks by helping to prevent road cut slope failures. 

I acquired my PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from Newcastle University in 2023, which was sponsored by NERC IAPETUS. My PhD aimed to further understand some of the causes for inadequate road slope stabilisation in lower-income country settings, and to develop stakeholder-focused methodologies to aid the planning and design of road slope stabilisation. 

During my PhD, I completed a three-month internship at the Research and Information Service (RaISe) of the Northern Ireland Assembly. During the internship, I produced a blog post on transport trends during the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland and a published research article and blog post on climate change risks to transport infrastructure in Northern Ireland.

Prior to my PhD, I received an MSci in Geology from the University of Birmingham in 2017, with a year abroad at the University of Copenhagen. During my undergraduate, I conducted two months of research at the Open University using a 3D image viewer (Pro3D) to examine and measure ripple-like bedforms found along the Opportunity rover traverse of Mars.