DOI: 10.16904/5
title: TRAMM project - experimental hydrological and hydrogeological dataset of a landslide prone hillslope. Rufiberg, Switzerland

description: Rufiberg is a pre-alpine meadow site in Switzerland where shallow landslides have been observed after past intense rain storms. In order to assess the triggering mechanisms of these landslides, a comprehensive investigation was conducted within the project TRAMM from Nov 2009 to Oct 2012. It included meteorological observations, soil moisture measurements, bedrock groundwater measurements. The Rufiberg is located at the NW side of the Gnipen to the north of the village Arth-Goldau in the Canton of Schwyz. In the summer months, the site is used for pasturing. Usually, from December to March a snow cover is present at the Rufiberg. The site is at an altitude between 1080 – 1180 m asl, is ENE oriented, and has an average slope of 30 -35°. The Subalpine Molasse in the region is inclined with 30 - 35° to SE. In the area of the field site, beds of conglomerate with several m of thickness alter with beds of sandstone and marlstone. A ca. 2 – 5 m thick eluvium/colluvium layer composed of silty and sandy clay covers the bedrock. This site has been chosen because on one hand, during heavy rainfall events, e.g. autumn 2005, numerous landslides occur in the region of the Gnipen and the Rufiberg. On the other hand, the Rufiberg is very appropriate for experiments due its location away from infrastructures and due to its accessibility. The goal of the investigation was to understand the hydrology and hydrogeology of the slope with regard to shallow landslides. 
More information: Brönnimann, C., Stähli, M., Schneider, P., Seward, L. and Springman, S.M. 2013. Bedrock exfiltration as a triggering mechanism for shallow landslides. Water Resources Research, 49 (9): 5155–5167. DOI: 10.1002/wrcr.20386.
description: Resource Title: Data Soil water content TDR.xlsm
 Size: 7866407 bytes
 Format: application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.macroEnabled.12
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/5333838f-5da6-4574-8d28-ce1794c19631/resource/fd31a45e-e5d0-476e-9a45-611f4d572d93/download/data-soil-water-content-tdr.xlsm
 Description: Four test pits were excavated in summer 2010 along the slope to install vertical profiles of Time Domain Reflectometry sensors [Topp et al., 1980] to measure soil water content at depths of 0.25 m, 0.7 m, 1.1 m and 1.5 m. The 15 cm long TDR rods were inserted horizontally into the vertical walls of the pits, and the four pits were carefully refilled with the excavated soil. The water content was recorded from summer 2010 to fall 2011 at 10-minute time intervals using a Campbell TDR 100 system.
description: Resource Title: Data Lateral subsurface water flow.xlsm
 Size: 2033894 bytes
 Format: application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.macroEnabled.12
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/5333838f-5da6-4574-8d28-ce1794c19631/resource/251578d0-3df2-44ed-9090-613a678bdbf8/download/data-lateral-subsurface-water-flow.xlsm
 Description:
description: Resource Title: Data Groundwater level in Soil.xlsx
 Size: 5593516 bytes
 Format: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/5333838f-5da6-4574-8d28-ce1794c19631/resource/720b044d-3ee5-4104-ba45-4b5b8ee7bf3e/download/data-groundwater-level-in-soil.xlsx
 Description:
description: Resource Title: Data Groundwater level in Bedrock.xlsx
 Size: 939397 bytes
 Format: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
 URL: https://www.envidat.ch/dataset/5333838f-5da6-4574-8d28-ce1794c19631/resource/0e09242b-0222-4b90-b247-4fa2c34bb8ca/download/data-groundwater-level-in-bedrock.xlsx
 Description: We drilled six boreholes in two clusters. The boreholes reached a depth between 2 and 9 m below the ground surface. The lower half of boreholes BH1 and BH6 were cored with a 9 cm-diameter rotational diamond drilling head. The other boreholes were drilled destructively with an 11 cm-diameter Mitsubishi hammer system. Boreholes BH1, BH2 and BH5 were equipped with open standpipe piezometers, whereas BH3, BH4 and BH6 were equipped with a special piezometer system composed of an enclosed measuring cell at the bottom of a 1 inch-PVC tube. The free groundwater level in the PVC tube is measured in the standpipe piezometer, but it doesn’t necessarily represent the water table in the soil layer because the pressure sensor is located in the sealed lower part of the piezometer in the enclosed measuring cell and thus is not in contact with the air. This system allows the hydraulic pressure of lithologies with low permeability to be measured directly. Two piezometers were installed in BH6 at different depths. The PVC tubes were slotted at the bottom for 0.5, 1 or 2 meters and the boreholes were sealed carefully with clay pellets above this filter section to avoid by-pass and infiltration from the surface. DCX-22 pressure sensors from Keller AG Winterthur, with integrated data loggers, were installed in each piezometer to measure the relative hydraulic pressure at a 30 minute-intervals from November 2010 to November 2011. The data were corrected for in-situ air-pressure fluctuations.