Abstract
Heterogeneous rock mass, such as flysch is represented by individual lithological units with different geomechanical parameters. The heterogeneity of the rock mass affects its geotechnical behaviour, which causes difficulties in slope stability, as well as in underground construction. Development of modern ground-based remote sensing techniques, enables measurement and positioning of distant objects. Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) has been in the past years successfully integrated in acquisition of geological features. In case of pulsed TLS, the scanner emits short pulsed beam of light and measures the time-of-flight from reflected object surface in order to compute the distance from objects. The resulted point cloud is georeferenced in the post-processing phase. Terrestrial Laser Scanner also records the intensity of reflectance, which depends on the properties of the scanned surface. Flysch rock mass can be followed in SW Slovenia, therefore a lithology profile in quarry Elerji was chosen to test the applicability of TLS in characterising the heterogeneous rock mass. The selected quarry wall was lithologically logged and scanned with TLS. Some samples along the profile have been collected for X-ray diffraction analysis of minerals. The analysis of point cloud included the examination of differences between intensity values for individual lithological units and determination of parameters, affecting the value. The resulted intensity intervals for sandstones and marlstones have been empirically tested on the same profile with relatively positive results. Findings and further analysis would help geologists determine the general engineering geological properties of flysch rock mass in the field, as well as geomechanical conditions for faster and more accurate decisions in providing support types in underground construction, defining slope stability and long-term solutions for stabilisation of rock wall.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bieniawski ZT (1989) Engineering rock mass classification: a complete manual for engineers and geologists in mining, civil, and petroleum engineering, vol XII. Wiley, New York, 251 p
Buckley SJ, Enge HD, Carlsson C, Howell JA (2010) Terrestrial laser scanning for use in virtual outcrop geology. Photogram Rec 25:225–239
Burton D, Dunlap DB, Wood LJ, Flaig PP (2011) LiDAR intensity as a remote sensor of rock properties. J Sediment Res 81(5):339–347
Fekete S, Diedrichs M (2013) Integration of 3D laser scanning with discontinuum modelling for stability analysis of tunnels in blocky rock masses. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 64(6):552–528
Feng Q, Röshoff K (2015) A survey of 3D laser scanning techniques for application to rock mechanics and rock engineering. In: Ulsay R (eds) The ISRM suggested methods for rock characterization, testing and monitoring: 2007–2014. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015, 265–293
Franceschi M, Teza G, Preto N, Pesci A, Galgaro A, Girardi S (2009) Discrimination between marls nad limestones using intensity data from terrestrial laser scanner. ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens 64(6):552–528
Hartzell P, Glennie C, Biber K, Khan S (2014) Application of multispectral LiDAR to automated virtual outcrop geology. ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens 88:147–155
Heriteage GL, Large ARG (2009) Laser scanning for the environmental sciences. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 278 p
Humair F, Abellan A, Carrea D, Matasci B, Epard J-L, Jaboyedoff M (2015) Geological layers detection and characterisation using high resolution 3D point cloud: example of a box-fold in the Swiss Jura Mountains. Eur J Remote Sens 48:541–568
Kraus K (2007) Photogrammetry, geometry from images and laser scans. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & CO, Berlin, 459 p
Lato MJ (2010) Geomechanical application of LiDAR pertaining to geomechanical evaluation and hazard identification. Doctoral Thesis. Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 238 p
Marinos P, Hoek E (2001) Estimating the geotechnical properties of heterogeneous rock masses such as Flysch. J Geol Soc Environ 60(2):85–92
Marinos V, Marinos P, Hoek E (2007) The geological strength index (GSI): a characterization tool for assessing engineering properties for rock masses. In: Olalla C, Perucho A, Romana M (eds) Proceedings of the ISRM workshop W1: Madrid, Spain 2007. Taylor & Francis, pp 13–21
Pfeifer N, Dorninger P, Haring A, Fan H (2007) Investigating terrestrial laser scanning intensity data: quality and functional relations. In: 8th conference on optical 3-D measurement techniques, Zurich, Switzerland, pp 328–337
Acknowledgements
The research for using TLS for lithology logging of thin-bedded heterogeneous rock mass by analysing intensity values of the reflected laser beam was performed between 2011 and 2016 as part of the Elea iC Research & Development group NTg2 (New Technologies in Geomatics and Geomechanics), which was co-financed by the European Union. The analysis included scanned faces of underground and ground excavations, like tunnel and quarry faces.
Authors express their thanks to Dr. Matej Dolenec for the performance of XRD analysis and DFG Consulting for supporting the performance and knowledge of terrestrial laser scanning.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Živec, T., Anžur, A., Verbovšek, T. (2017).
Using the Intensity Values from Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) for Determining Lithology of Flysch Rock Mass in Southwest Slovenia.
In: Mikos, M., Tiwari, B., Yin, Y., Sassa, K. (eds) Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides. WLF 2017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53498-5_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53498-5_23
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53497-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53498-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)