Landscaping is one of the activities that takes place along with infrastructural developments in most cities all over the world. In landscaping projects, there is often a possibility of construction of low-height sandy slopes, typically varying in height from 1 m to 3 m. At certain locations, if a steep slope is required, it becomes essential to reinforce the slope with one or more geotextile layers at some specific spacing to prevent slope failure and enhance slope stability. In this paper, an attempt is made to analyze the effect of shear strength parameters on the factor of safety of low-height unreinforced and geotextile-reinforced sandy slopes, using the limit equilibrium analysis based on Slope/W software. The slope height has been considered 3 m, with angles ranging from 40º to 60º. The study has shown that increasing the cohesion and friction angle of the sandy soil improves the factor of safety of both unreinforced and reinforced slopes. The best improvement in factor of safety is observed in all the soils analyzed for cohesion of 1 kPa. Design charts, for estimation of the factor of safety, have been developed for all the slope angles and various soils considered. An illustrative example has been included so that the geotechnical engineers can understand how to use the design charts. A similar design chart can be prepared for other heights, including medium and high values.
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