Rockfall Volume–Cumulative Frequency Relationships for Rockfall Hazard Quantification Using Historical and Change Detection Data

Rockfall records for hazard assessments commonly present rockfall volume–cumulative frequency curves based on observations of rockfall occurrences that are noticed at or in the vicinity of infrastructure. These curves are in log–log scale, where the curves for larger volumes are fitted to a power law (linear fit in the log–log plot). The slope of this linear fit in log–log plots has been qualitatively attributed to rock mass characteristics (lithology, rock mass quality, discontinuities); however, there are not many direct insights that greenfield sites (new sites or areas with scarce to no data) could adopt for an order-of-magnitude estimation of rockfall hazard. This paper collects data from the literature, past and current, and presents details of these rockfall volume–cumulative frequency curves for different lithologies and rock mass qualities. Importantly, recent databases on rockfall frequency and volumes as obtained through change detection are utilized, which can provide more detailed and less biased rockfall occurrence data.