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Stability of earth structures and relevance of safety factors

Although the concept of factor of safety is commonly used in geotechnical design practice to cover all the (un)expected risks, its use in the stability analyses of earth structures presents major weaknesses. The paper presents a critical review of the historical development of this concept and also, of the concept of partial safety factors, and questions the present practice of using them in an indiscriminate manner. Some recommendations are proposed to obtain safer designs, without having to resort to the use of questionable hypotheses and parameters.