A DIGITAL CLOSE-RANGE PHOTOGRAMMETRIC TECHNIQUE FOR MONITORING SLOPE DISPLACEMENTS

Deformation monitoring of slope instability and its surroundings supplies important information on the behavior of the slope in that it evaluates whether potential collapse may occur. Monitoring results may also be used in verifying design geotechnical parameters of slopes such as in mines and aid in the calculation of soil mass volume. The development of digital Photogrammetry allows calculation of high accuracy three-dimensional coordinates for points on and around the slopes. A main advantage is that no physical contact with the monitoring body (i.e., to install targets) is necessary, like in conventional land surveying techniques. Given the high spatial resolution of Photogrammetry compared to discrete point monitoring of conventional surveying, it is evident that there is enormous potential for use of this technology in monitoring applications where dense data sets could provide great insight into the nature of slope displacements for risk assessment, volume computation and structural model validation. The paper describes the use of digital Photogrammetry in the slope monitoring and soil volume computation under real conditions. The proposed technique uses digital close-range photogrammetric images and non-signalized control points. The advantage in this approach is that the data processing is applied in a terrestrial photogrammetric coordinate system, i.e. xyplane in a vertical position, but the products can be generated in a standard 3D Cartesian coordinate system (horizontal xy-plane) as well. Finally, results including 2D maps, orthomaps, 3D photorealistic views and the calculation of the moving soil mass volume are presented.