Abstract: The significant spatial variability of soil property is a difficult problem for risk management of levee. On the basis of analyzing the spatial variability of soil permeability, the statistical characteristic of seepage field and seepage stability of levee foundation is studied by stochastic numerical method. Random field model is adopted for soil permeability, and the turning bands method is employed to simulate the permeability random field. The distribution of seepage field and probability of seepage failure are evaluated by Monte-Carlo method. The presented approach is applied to a case study. Results imply that the spatial variability of soil permeability has great impact on seepage field; with the increase of variation of permeability and critical gradient, local seepage is highly concentrated, and seepage failure probability of levee foundation also increases.

Key words: levee seepage, permeability, spatial variability, seepage stability, numerical simulation