Project Info

Monitoring and Characterizing Rock Slopes and Excavations through Analysis of Remote Sensing Data

Gabriel Walton | gwalton@mines.edu

Rockfall hazards result in injuries, fatalities, and economic losses (due to road closures) all over the US, and especially in Colorado. The use of terrestrial LiDAR and photogrammetry data to predict rockfall events is an emerging field which will ultimately lead to improved management of the associated hazard.

More Information

No resources have been published yet. Unpublished results can be shared with individual students confidentially on a case by case basis. A more detailed project description is provided here for context:

Monitoring rock deformation, whether along a slope or in a tunnel, is a critical component of any geotechnical instrumentation program. 3D laser scanning (LiDAR) represents a potentially valuable tool for making such measurements. By taking advantage of the large volumes of data collected by LiDAR, highly accurate measurements can be made. This position will involve processing LiDAR data collected from a TBM tunnel in Seattle as well as along the I-70 corridor (at specific locations of interest due to rockfall hazard) to understand the displacement trends occurring in each case; there may also be opportunities for short fieldwork stints to collect more data, both in tunnels and along I-70.

Grand Engineering Challenge: Not applicable