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UAV monitoring and documentation of a large landslide

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Abstract

In June 2013, heavy precipitation triggered a large earthflow of several million cubic meters in a small village in Austria. A bundle of technologies was applied to monitor and document the landslide, such as geophysical methods (geoelectrics, inclinometer, soil moisture, and soil temperature) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements. Additionally, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was used for the periodical assessment of the landslide process. In total, nine flights were performed with a multicopter equipped with a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) that delivered several thousands of images. Based on these images and detailed GNSS measurements of the landslide area, orthophotos as well as generated Digital Surface Models (DSMs) with an accuracy of less than ±10 cm resulted. Fissure tracking, flow direction and velocity, and mass balances as well as the construction progress of the protection and mitigation measures were derived from these data sets. The application of the UAV turned out to be a cost- and time-effective tool for landslide-monitoring that provides researchers and engineers with accurate high-resolution geodata.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Georg Nagl and Fritz Zott for the technical support during fieldwork, which resulted in a productive on-site experience. Furthermore, we would like to thank the WLV for providing data (laserscans, orthophotos, GNSS measurements) and also for surveying the GCPs. Last but not least, we wish to thank all the helping hands that were involved in handling the landslide.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Surveying, Remote Sensing and Land Information, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter-Jordan-Straße 82, A-1190, Vienna, Austria

    Gerald Lindner & Reinfried Mansberger

  2. Institute of Mountain Risk Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter-Jordan-Straße 82, A-1190, Vienna, Austria

    Klaus Schraml & Johannes Hübl

Authors
  1. Gerald Lindner
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  2. Klaus Schraml
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  3. Reinfried Mansberger
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  4. Johannes Hübl
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Correspondence to Gerald Lindner.

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Lindner, G., Schraml, K., Mansberger, R. et al. UAV monitoring and documentation of a large landslide. Appl Geomat 8, 1–11 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-015-0165-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-015-0165-0

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