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Modeling of landslide topography based on micro-unmanned aerial vehicle photography and structure-from-motion

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Abstract

Landslides are an important type of natural disaster that can cause catastrophic destruction of infrastructure and result in human casualties. An accurate digital surface model (DSM) is essential for analysis of landslide stability and associated risks. This work presents a rapid modeling method of landslide topography by combining high-resolution imagery from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry. Because of the relatively high efficiency and low costs, the micro-UAV system is suitable for emergency investigation of landslide disaster when compared to geodetic or other remote-sensing techniques, especially for inaccessible landslide area after earthquakes. Based on the micro-UAV images, the use of SfM combines well-established photogrammetric principles with modern computation to rapidly reconstruct a DSM. The relative error determined by comparison with measured data for the UAV–SfM technology is <1%. An unstable slope in Panyu District, Guangzhou City, China, was selected as a case study, in which a small UAV system was deployed for landslide investigation and generation of a highly efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly approach for 3D terrain modeling.

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Abbreviations

CMVS:

Clustering views for multi-view stereo

DSM:

Digital surface model

GCP:

Ground control point

GPS:

Global positioning systems

LIDAR:

Light detection and ranging

PMVS:

Patch-based multi-view stereo

SfM:

Structure-from-motion

SIFT:

Scale-invariant feature transform

TLS:

Terrestrial laser scanning

UAS:

Unmanned aircraft systems

UAV:

Unmanned aerial vehicle

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 41625011), the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2012BAJ11B04) and Fundamental Research Founds for National University, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (Grant No. CUGL170806).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, China

    Miao Yu

  2. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Yu Huang, Jiamin Zhou & Liya Mao

  3. Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Yu Huang

Authors
  1. Miao Yu
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  2. Yu Huang
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  3. Jiamin Zhou
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  4. Liya Mao
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Correspondence to Yu Huang.

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Yu, M., Huang, Y., Zhou, J. et al. Modeling of landslide topography based on micro-unmanned aerial vehicle photography and structure-from-motion. Environ Earth Sci 76, 520 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-017-6860-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-017-6860-x

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