The Project

WSP has carried out instrumentation monitoring in West Quesnel as part of the ongoing West Quesnel Land Stability Program. The purpose of the instrumentation monitoring was to track landslide related ground movements, groundwater conditions, and precipitation.

Various sets of Global Positioning System (GPS) ground surface movement hubs have been established in the field between 1998 and 2001. Beginning in the year 2000, WSP has installed several phases of slope inclinometers, piezometers, trial pumping wells, and trial horizontal drains. Urban Systems, from Kamloops, BC, has also installed a weather station in West Quesnel, which measures precipitation and temperature data.

Based on the results of the trial pumping wells and horizontal drains, in the 2012 field season WSP installed several additional pumping wells along the upper slope, along with additional horizontal drains along the foot of the slope, as well as additional monitoring instrumentation (piezometers and slope inclinometers).

Instruments

GPS Hubs - these are permanent monuments embedded in the ground, whose position is periodically measured by GPS survey equipment.

Piezometers - these instruments are placed in boreholes and measure the pressure of groundwater at a specific point.

Slope Inclinometers - these measure the horizontal movement profile in a borehole over time.

Flow Meters - installed in pumping wells and horizontal drains, these measure the quantity of water flowing.