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Advancements in Ground Movement Monitoring through Remote Sensing Techniques

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Remote Sensing in Geology, Geomorphology and Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 September 2025 | Viewed by 3409

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Guest Editor
Stamatopoulos and Associates Co. & Hellenic Open University, Patra, Greece
Interests: modeling and simulation; numerical modeling; earthquake engineering; urban planning; civil engineering; geology; geographic information system
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Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
Interests: education and professional experience in civil engineering, with expertise in the analysis, design and integrated management of water resources systems; emphasis on the application of operations research methods, systems approach and computer simulation

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Guest Editor
Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Interests: disaster data science and risk assessment; disaster information system and emergency management
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Guest Editor
Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Interests: GNSS; crustal kinematics; remote sensing (mainly laser scanning and SfM); deep learning applications; landslide monitoring and modeling; cultural heritage; soil-structure interaction
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The safety of structures such as houses, buildings, bridges, retaining walls, dams, in terms to their interaction with the ground, is related to excessive ground displacement which affects the structure and comparing it to a tolerable displacement. Tolerable displacement which may vary from (a) a few centimeters to (b) meters. An example of case (a) is a critical mountain slope with a building structure on it and an example of case (b) is a critical mountain slope with a road at some distance from it. It is inferred that, accurate evaluation of displacement varying from a few millimeters to meters may be needed.

Ground movement may occur in sloping ground due to shear failure as a result of factors such as earthquakes or rainfall. Ground movement may occur also in level ground due to settlement as a result of densification due for example water table lowering, or due to shear failure settlement as a result of applied load, cavity collapse or movement of a nearby existing fault.

Often ground movement does not occur abruptly, but progresses with time. Pumping-induced ground settlement and creeping slopes are typical examples. Thus, monitoring ground method is an important method to evaluate the displacement-induced risk and prevention of geological disaster including land subsidence and landslides.

Visual inspection, crack meters, surveying/prisms and inclinometers and extensometers are examples of the conventional geotechnical instruments for monitoring the surface and subsurface ground movement. Some of these methods have recently been used with automated measuring systems, e.g. robotic total stations, Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS), but they cannot be defined as fully “remote” since they need targets or sensors installed on the ground. On the other hand, in recent years, digital image correlation techniques have emerged as a remote displacement measurement method, due to its advantages of low cost, and full-field deformation measurement. These techniques are based on the comparison of images, gathered at different times, typically from aircrafts, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or satellites. For each source, methods have been developed to obtain ground movement from these images. As an example, regarding data gathered from satellites, recently, monitoring of ground deformation at centimeter to millimeter resolution has been achieved in some studies with the spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry method.

The importance and current rapid development of the field of ground monitoring, described above, makes it an important field for publications of both research and novel engineering project results. Validation of ground displacement measurements with other methods at some locations is strongly recommended. Furthermore, physical interpretation of measured ground movement is very important to evaluate future risk.

Dr. Constantine A. Stamatopoulos
Dr. Angelos Protopapas
Prof. Dr. Baofeng Di
Dr. Giordano Teza
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • ground displacement
  • measurements
  • landslides
  • slope instability
  • ground subsidence risk
  • inSAR
  • SAR
  • global navigation satellite system (GNSS)
  • terrestrial laser scanner (TLS)
  • unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 10428 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Reservoirs on Landslide Erosion
by Fengjiao Tang, Shengwen Qi, Songfeng Guo, Yongchao Li, Xinyi Guo, Xiao Lu, Yu Zou, Xueliang Wang, Xie Hu, Lina Ma, Bowen Zheng and Zan Wang
Remote Sens. 2025, 17(4), 569; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17040569 - 7 Feb 2025
Viewed by 710
Abstract
The evolution of the landslide erosion of bank slopes in reservoir regions is crucial for disaster prevention and mitigation in hydropower projects, and it is also an important topic to investigate the impact of anthropogenic activities on the environment. A dispute exists on [...] Read more.
The evolution of the landslide erosion of bank slopes in reservoir regions is crucial for disaster prevention and mitigation in hydropower projects, and it is also an important topic to investigate the impact of anthropogenic activities on the environment. A dispute exists on the landslide erosion of bank slopes under reservoir impoundment. In this paper, we chose the Xiluodu reservoir as a typical case for analysis. The reservoir is located on the eastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau and ranks as the fourth largest hydropower station in the world. Firstly, we identified landslides using the multi-temporal image interpretation method before and after impoundment in the reservoir area, and established a landslide dataset. On this basis, we analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution of these landslides, and derived the landslide erosion rate based on the quantitative relation between landslide volume and area. The results showed that the landslide erosion rate increased sharply during the initial impoundment period and decreased exponentially. We then analyzed reservoir-induced landslides worldwide and found that most reservoir bank slopes tend to stabilize after about five years of impoundment, eventually even becoming more stable than pre-impoundment, regardless of the location, scale, water fluctuations, and geoenvironment. Thus, in the long term, reservoir construction tends to reduce erosion and contribute to bank stability. This study provides a preliminary answer to the controversial issue of the impact of reservoir construction on the natural environment. Full article
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26 pages, 30978 KiB  
Article
Slope Surface Deformation Monitoring Based on Close-Range Photogrammetry: Laboratory Insights and Field Applications
by Tianxin Lu, Peng Han, Wei Gong, Shuangshuang Li, Shuangling Mo, Kaiyan Hu, Yihua Zhang, Chunyu Mo, Yuyan Li, Ning An, Fangjun Li, BingBing Han, Baofeng Wan and Ruidong Li
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(23), 4380; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16234380 - 23 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1036
Abstract
Slope surface deformation monitoring plays an important role in landslide risk assessment and early warning. Currently, the mainstream GNSS, as a point-measurement technique, is expensive to deploy, resulting in information on only a few points of displacement being obtained on a target slope [...] Read more.
Slope surface deformation monitoring plays an important role in landslide risk assessment and early warning. Currently, the mainstream GNSS, as a point-measurement technique, is expensive to deploy, resulting in information on only a few points of displacement being obtained on a target slope in practical applications. In contrast, optical images can contain more information on slope displacement at a much lower cost. Therefore, a low-cost, high-spatial-resolution and easy-to-implement landslide surface deformation monitoring system based on close-range photogrammetry is developed in this paper. The proposed system leverages multiple image processing methods and monocular visual localization, combined with machine learning, to ensure accurate monitoring under time series. The results of several laboratory landslide experiments show that the proposed system achieved millimeter-level monitoring accuracy in laboratory landslide experiments. Moreover, the proposed system could capture slow displacement precursors of 5 mm to 10 mm before significant landslide failure occurred, which provides favorable surface deformation evidence for landslide monitoring and early warning. In addition, the system was deployed on a natural slope in Lanzhou, yielding preliminary effective monitoring results. The laboratory experimental results demonstrated the system’s effectiveness and high accuracy in monitoring landslide surface deformation, particularly its significant application value in early warning. The field deployment results indicated that the system could also effectively provide data support in natural environments, offering practical evidence for landslide monitoring and warning. Full article
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18 pages, 13608 KiB  
Article
South-to-North Water Diversion Halting Long-Lived Subsidence in Tianjin, North China Plain
by Zhongshan Jiang, Juyan Zhu, Haipeng Guo, Keshan Qiu, Miao Tang, Xinghai Yang and Jinyu Liu
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(17), 3213; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173213 - 30 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1058
Abstract
The South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China is the world’s largest water transfer project, aiming to address water shortages in northern China by channeling water from the water-rich southern regions. Water resources in Tianjin have long been in severe deficit, with excessive groundwater [...] Read more.
The South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China is the world’s largest water transfer project, aiming to address water shortages in northern China by channeling water from the water-rich southern regions. Water resources in Tianjin have long been in severe deficit, with excessive groundwater extraction causing significant surface subsidence, negatively impacting urban infrastructure and economic development. As a result, Tianjin has become a key beneficiary of this water diversion project. To investigate the current situation of surface subsidence, we obtained the vertical displacement time series from 21 GNSS stations across Tianjin from 2011 to 2021 and analyzed overall subsidence changes and rehabilitation status. Results indicate that no clear surface subsidence was observed in the northern regions of Tianjin due to groundwater extraction mainly in unconfined aquifers. The southwestern region experienced the most significant surface subsidence due to overexploitation of deep groundwater, with peak cumulative subsidence exceeding 600 mm during the study period. The central, eastern, and southeastern coastal regions also faced severe surface subsidence with cumulative amounts ranging from 100 mm to 400 mm. The alleviation of subsidence predominantly benefits from continuous water supply from the South to North Water Diversion Project, which resulted in most stations significantly slowing down or even stabilizing their settlement rates after 2018. Therefore, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project plays a crucial role in addressing the persistent water resource shortage and mitigating long-term surface subsidence in Tianjin by ensuring a continuous water supply and significantly reducing the need for groundwater extraction. Our findings indicate positive measures, such as water diversion projects and water management policies, can serve as valuable references for other regions around the world facing similar water scarcity and groundwater overexploitation. Full article
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