Uav and Close-Range Photogrammetry to Support Geo-Mechanical Analysis in Safety Road Management: The “Vallone D’elva” Road

Abstract

Abstract. In the last decades, the development of geomatics and geomechanics techniques integration in the environmental field permits to obtain more detailed and accurate results, reducing the survey costs. The aim of the present work was aimed to apply these innovative combined methods and techniques in order to gain a detailed analysis of landslide hazard and on the stability condition of rocky slopes, to get useful information for subsequent design and feasibility planning of Vallone d’Elva road. During two different surveys period, geostructural surveys were carried out in situ (i.e. spatial orientation of discontinuity planes, their spacing and persistence), associated with geomatics surveys using drones (UAV technique – Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and terrestrial photogrammetric technique to get high-resolution images of the rockwalls along the road in areas with complex orography and inaccessible. Their data processing has allowed the generation of different kind of data at different scales, like some 3D dense point clouds with a huge definition, which have been used to generate three-dimensional surfaces models. This procedure has allowed obtaining DSM (Digital Surface Model), DTMs (Digital Terrain Models) and orthophotos with centimetre resolution (mean 4 cm). Moreover, to identify the geomechanical rockmasses features, have been computed a new photogrammetric product on 16 specific rockwall sites along the road: “vertical orthophotos”, with details of few mm. Besides, over then twenty detailed DTMs of rockwalls along the entire road have been generated to measure plane orientation, spacing and other geometrical characteristics of outcropping rock masses, which have been statistically collected and analysed.

Improving Cut and Fill Operations in Construction using Drone Technology and Aerial Analytics

“…The study's findings show how UAV-based surveying has a lot of potential for tracking and comprehending the dynamic changes in coastal landscapes. A case study of the application of close-range photogrammetry and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in geomechanically analysis for the management of road safety is provided by [3]. The Vallone d'Elva route in the Italian Alps, which is distinguished by its steep slopes and frequent rockfall events, is the subject of the study.…”

Rock Mass Characterization by UAV and Close-Range Photogrammetry: A Multiscale Approach Applied along the Vallone dell’Elva Road (Italy)

“…In order to obtain all the metric information regarding the slopes overlooking the ten kilometres of the Elva Valley Road, a 3D integrated metric survey was performed employing a multisensor and multiscale survey with different techniques [36]: UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), SLAM techniques (Simultaneous Localizations Additionally, Mapping) and CRP (Close-Range Photogrammetry). Particularly, UAVs and CRP techniques were used to generate DSMs and orthophotos useful for the following slopes analysis.…”