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Advances in Multisensor Applications for Remote Sensing in the Engineering Geology and the Environment

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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: closed (31 August 2024) | Viewed by 7607

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Simone Mineo

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Guest Editor

Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, 95129 Catania, CT, Italy
Interests: landslide; rock mechanics; rock mass; monitoring; field survey; remote survey; Infrared thermography; UAV photogrammetry; rockfall risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Giovanna Pappalardo

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Dr. Renato Macciotta

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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, 6-207 Donadeo Innovation Centre for Engineering, 9211-116 St, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H5, Canada
Interests: landslide; rock mechanics; rock mass; monitoring; field survey; remote survey; UAV photogrammetry; rockfall risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of remote sensing is of broad utility in different fields of science and technology. The possibility of surveying wide areas or structures in a contactless and even relatively quick way has led the international community to invest in the technological advances in remote sensing applications for numerous purposes. In the practice of engineering geology and environmental sciences, the implementation of multisensor approaches has returned satisfactory results for the remote survey and monitoring of gravitational phenomena along slopes, including landslides and avalanches; ground deformation, related to the overexploitation of underground resources or to active geological processes; pollution of environmental matrices and landfills; fluvial processes; etc. The combination of remotely sensed data provides valuable information to be employed for territorial planning, disaster risk management and remediation/stabilization planning, amongst other applications.

This Special Issue aims to collect scientific contributions on the advances in multisensor applications for remote surveying and monitoring, with the objective of providing the researcher and practitioner in engineering geology and environmental sciences with compiled research on the state of the art in multisensor application. The scope of this Special Issue includes (but is not limited to) large landslides, rock cliffs, ground deformations affecting urban centers, efficiency of slope stabilization works and river engineering, and fluvial dynamics. Attention to environmental issues is also encouraged in this Special Issue, such as the use of remote sensing approaches to detect and monitor ground pollution.

Technical studies in support of the definition of models, forecasts, hazard and risk assessment procedures, including those carried out through innovative methodologies, are welcomed.

Case studies, hosting scientifically interesting data and procedures, contextualized in the international state of the art, are appreciated as well.

Dr. Simone Mineo
Dr. Giovanna Pappalardo
Dr. Renato Macciotta
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

landslide survey
ground deformation
photogrammetry
DInSAR
infrared thermography
rock mass instability
hazard and risk assessment
contamination evolution

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 6731 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Deep-Seated Landslide and Rockfalls Threatening the Village of Pietracamela in Central Italy: Deciphering Phenomena from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar and Point Cloud Analysis

by Mirko Francioni, Domenico Calcaterra, Diego Di Martire, Luigi Guerriero, Gabriele Scarascia Mugnozza and Nicola Sciarra

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(17), 3151; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173151 - 26 Aug 2024

Viewed by 375

Abstract

Landslides represent a major problem in human activities, especially in the proximity of cities or infrastructure. In this paper, we present the peculiar case of Pietracamela, Italy. Pietracamela is a small village located in the Central Apennines, a few kilometers north of the Gran Sasso Mountain. The peculiarity of the case study is the fact that the village is simultaneously affected by two different types of slope instabilities. The southwest sector, representing the historical part of the village, has been affected by large rockfalls generated from the “Capo le Vene” cliff located in the south of the village. The northeastern sector of the village represents the most recent urbanized area and is involved in a deep-seated landslide that, in the last decades, has damaged buildings and infrastructure. In this context, we have used two different types of remote sensing techniques to study the two phenomena. The rockfall area has been surveyed through the use of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that allowed the definition of main joint sets and the volume of blocks associated with the most recent (2011) rockfall event. Three main joint sets have been highlighted, which are responsible for the failure of the “Capo le Vene” cliff. The volume of blocks that failed during the last rock failure in 2011 ranged from a few to 1500 m³. The deep-seated landslide has been studied by analyzing borehole data and 20 years of InSAR data from ERS1/2, ENVISAT, COSMO-SkyMed, and SENTINEL-1. It has been highlighted by InSAR analysis that the northeast sector of the village shows a perfectly linear displacement trend that generates movements up to about 230 mm (about 1 cm/year). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Multisensor Applications for Remote Sensing in the Engineering Geology and the Environment)

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22 pages, 10436 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optical and Thermal Image Processing for Monitoring Rainfall Triggered Shallow Landslides: Insights from Analogue Laboratory Experiments

by Antonio Cosentino, Gian Marco Marmoni, Matteo Fiorucci, Paolo Mazzanti, Gabriele Scarascia Mugnozza and Carlo Esposito

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(23), 5577; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15235577 - 30 Nov 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1238

Abstract

This study explores the innovative use of digital image processing (DIP) techniques, also named PhotoMonitoring, for analysing the triggering conditions of shallow landslides. The approach, based on the combination of optical and infrared thermographic imaging (IRT), was applied to a laboratory-scale slope, reproduced in a flume test apparatus. Three experiments were conducted to replicate rainfall-induced shallow landslides, applying change detection and digital image correlation analysis to both optical and thermal images. The method combines IRT’s ability to measure ground surface temperature changes with DIP’s capacity to track movement and displacement. Results showed the high reliability of the displacement time-series obtained through IRT-DIP with respect to the reference optical-DIP. The IRT-DIP technique also detects anomaly signals two minutes before landslide occurrence that can be regarded as a possible failure precursor. This study testifies to the potential of image analysis as a remote sensing technique, demonstrating the ability of DIP to capture the dynamics of shallow landslides, as well as the advantages of optical–IRT combinations to follow slope deformation processes during night-time. This approach, if properly adapted to real-scale scenarios, may contribute to a better understanding of landslide behaviour, improve landslide monitoring strategies, and promote more effective early warning systems (EWS). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Multisensor Applications for Remote Sensing in the Engineering Geology and the Environment)

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26 pages, 42290 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Slope-Scale Remote Mapping of Rock Mass Fracturing by Modeling Cooling Trends Derived from Infrared Thermography

by Federico Franzosi, Chiara Crippa, Marc-Henri Derron, Michel Jaboyedoff and Federico Agliardi

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(18), 4525; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15184525 - 14 Sep 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1296

Abstract

The reliable in situ quantification of rock mass fracturing and engineering quality is critical for slope stability, surface mining and rock engineering applications, yet it remains difficult due to the heterogeneous nature of fracture networks. We propose a method to quantify and map the slope-scale geomechanical quality of fractured rock masses using infrared thermography (IRT). We use the Mt. Gorsa quarry (Trentino, Italy) as a field laboratory to upscale a physics-based approach, which was developed in the laboratory, to in situ conditions, including the effects of fracture heterogeneity, environmental conditions and IRT limitations. We reconstructed the slope in 3D using UAV photogrammetry, characterized the rock mass quality in the field at selected outcrops in terms of the Geological Strength Index (GSI) and measured their cooling behavior through 18h time-lapse IRT surveys. With ad hoc field experiments, we developed a novel procedure to correct IRT data in outdoor environments with complex topography. This allowed for a spatially distributed quantification of the rock mass surface cooling behavior in terms of a Curve Shape Parameter (C_SP). Using non-linear regression, we established a quantitative C_SP-GSI relationship, which allowed for the C_SP to be translated into GSI maps. Our results demonstrate the possibility of applying infrared thermography to the slope-scale mapping of rock mass fracturing based on a physics-based experimental methodology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Multisensor Applications for Remote Sensing in the Engineering Geology and the Environment)

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17 pages, 3760 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Assessment of the Surface Heat Flux Role in Radon (Rn-222) Gas Flow within Subsurface Geological Porous Media

by Ayelet Benkovitz, Hovav Zafrir and Yuval Reuveni

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(16), 4094; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15164094 - 20 Aug 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1011

Abstract

At present, Rn subsurface flow can be described only by diffusion and advection transportation models within porous media that currently exist. Even though the temperature is a strong driving force in climate and gas thermodynamics, the impact of the surface heating is missing from all gas flow models within geological porous media. In this work, it is shown that heating the ground surface by the sun, every day up to a maximum temperature at noon, creates a downward vertical temperature gradient related to the constant temperature in the upper shallow layer whose measured thickness is several meters. Undersurface, the Rn gas in the porous media is propelled in nonlinear dependency by the surface temperature gradient to flow downward, up to a measured depth of 100 m, revealing a daily periodicity with time delay depending on depth, similar to the diurnal cycle of the surface temperature. Moreover, regression analysis applied with the data implies a non-linear relationship between Rn and the temporal surface temperature. The relationship is non-linear and the best fit for it from a thermodynamic point of view is an exponential dependency. From now on, it will be possible according to the model to predict and extract, if required, by the time series of the surface-measured parameters (the ambient temperature and pressure), the semi-diurnal, diurnal, multiday, and seasonal Rn temporal variation at a shallow depth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Multisensor Applications for Remote Sensing in the Engineering Geology and the Environment)

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24 pages, 9999 KiB

Open AccessArticle

NASA ICESat-2: Space-Borne LiDAR for Geological Education and Field Mapping of Aeolian Sand Dune Environments

by Khushbakht Rehman, Nadeem Fareed and Hone-Jay Chu

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(11), 2882; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15112882 - 1 Jun 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2825

Abstract

Satellites are launched frequently to monitor the Earth’s dynamic surface processes. For example, the Landsat legacy has thrived for the past 50 years, spanning almost the entire application spectrum of Earth Sciences. On the other hand, fewer satellites are launched with a single specific mission to address pressing scientific questions, e.g., the study of polar icecaps and their response to climate change using Ice Cloud and the Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) program with ICESat-1 (decommissioned in 2009) and ICESat-2. ICESat-2 has been operational since 2018 and has provided unprecedented success in space-borne LiDAR technology. ICESat-2 provides exceptional details of topographies covering inland ice, snow, glaciers, land, inland waterbodies, and vegetation in three-dimensional (3D) space and time, offering the unique opportunity to quantify the Earth’s surface processes. Nevertheless, ICESat-2 is not well known to some other disciplines, e.g., Geology and Geomorphology. This study, for the first time, introduces the use of ICESat-2 in aeolian sand dune studies, purely from an ICESat-2 remote sensing data perspective. Two objectives are investigated. first, a simplified approach to understanding ICESat-2 data products along with their application domains. Additionally, data processing methods and software applications are briefly explained to unify the information in a single article. Secondly, the exemplified use of ICESat-2 data in aeolian sand dune environments is analyzed compared to global Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), e.g., Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Our investigation shows that ICESat-2 provides high-resolution topographic details in desert environments with significant improvements to the existing methods, thereby facilitating geological education and field mapping. Aeolian sand dune environments can be better understood, at present, using ICESat-2 data compared to traditional DEM-based methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Multisensor Applications for Remote Sensing in the Engineering Geology and the Environment)

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