Plant roots in the active zone improving the performance of ecological reinforced soil retaining walls

Ecological reinforced soil retaining walls are a new type of support and protection structures that integrate modern soil reinforcement and vegetation slope protection technologies. The roots of plants within the retaining wall can only extend horizontally within a limited range. Thus, the stabilizing effect of plant roots on the retaining wall is often overlooked. This study used palm leaves instead of vegetation roots to explore the effect of plant roots within the active zone on the stability of retaining walls. To this end, variations of four parameters were monitored: horizontal displacement of retaining wall, horizontal earth pressure behind the eco-bag facing and behind reinforcement, and tensile strain of reinforcement. The results show that under the same load, the four parameters gradually decrease with increasing root density. Compared with the no-root wall, they decrease by 43