Geological Terrain Mapping using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Drone Photogrammetry

The research area was conducted within the Bukit Persekutuan, Kuala Lumpur, and it was located at the latitude 3° 8'32.93"N and longitude 101°40'32.80"E. The researcher carried out geological terrain mapping to evaluate the research area in accordance with the geological terrain classification attributes of each thematic map produced, namely, Terrain map, slope gradient map, erosion, and instability map, as well as construction suitability map. The occurrence of landslide events within the research area becomes a major contributing factor to thoroughly conducting an investigation by field mapping and analysing using the Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. The application of Geographic Information System (GIS) and drone photogrammetry images play an essential role to analyze and process the data, thus, generate the thematic maps. The research area indicates that about 79.11% of the overall area was not appreciable with erosion, 8.58% contribute to the erosion, 11.00% of recent general instability, and 2.97% represent a landslide event. The suitability for development mapping illustrated Class I (23.40), Class II (36.37%), Class III (26.39%), and Class IV (15.50%) where it can be referred to the construction suitability classification system, the suitability for development was high in class I, moderate in class II, low in class III and not suitable in class IV.

Steep Creek Risk Assessment for Pipeline Design : A Case Study From British Columbia, Canada

ABSTRACT Pipelines in mountainous terrain often cross alluvial fans formed by steep creek processes of debris flows and debris floods and are thus exposed to their associated hazards. The design of new pipeline infrastructure and maintenance of existing pipelines necessitates steep creek risk assessments and appropriate mitigation design. We present methodology for assessing steep creek risk along pipeline routes that evaluates the probability of such processes causing a pipeline loss of containment or disruption in service. The methodology consists of estimating event frequency, scour potential, and the vulnerability of the pipeline to break if impacted by boulders. The approach can be adapted to other landslide geohazards so that different geohazard locations can be evaluated with a common metric. Steep creek process frequency is estimated based on field observations and review of documented events, historical air photo records, and terrain mapping based on LiDAR-generated topography. Scour potential is estimated based on channel morphology, presence of bedrock, and grain size distribution of channel bed material. Vulnerability is estimated based on flow width and velocity and can be modified for different pipe diameters and wall thicknesses. Mitigation options for buried pipelines include those intended to decrease the likelihood of the pipeline being exposed and to increase the resiliency of the pipeline to boulder or organic debris impacts, if exposed. The methodology presented is embedded in risk-informed decision making where pipeline owners and regulators can define probability thresholds to pipeline exposure or rupture, and pipeline designers can demonstrate that proposed mitigation measures achieve these threshold criteria.

THREE-DIMENSIONAL TERRAIN MAPPING

The article discusses new ideas in the field of three-dimensional representation of geographical space. 3D-mapping is defined as the most effective way to display the surrounding area. In particular, the advantages of three-dimensional maps in comparison with two-dimensional analogues are given, the current state of the field of 3D-representation is analyzed, and two approaches are identified: car-tography and geovisualization. The technique of 3D-mapping, as well as various existing graphical en-vironments for creating 3D-maps, and a comparative analysis of their capabilities are considered. For practical work, a graphic editor based on the game engine was selected with a justification for its use and a description of its functional fea-tures. The creation of a three-dimensional map of the area is implemented, the results are presented as illustrations of real and simulated territory. Potential applications of the 3D-map in various fields of activity are identified.

Automated terrain mapping based on mask R-CNN neural network

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of a novel approach for automated terrain mapping a robotic vehicles path tracing.Design/methodology/approachThe approach includes stitching of images, obtained from unmanned aerial vehicle, based on ORB descriptors, into an orthomosaic image and the GPS-coordinates are binded to the corresponding pixels of the map. The obtained image is fed to a neural network MASK R-CNN for detection and classification regions, which are potentially dangerous for robotic vehicles motion. To visualize the obtained map and obstacles on it, the authors propose their own application architecture. Users can any time edit the present areas or add new ones, which are not intended for robotic vehicles traffic. Then the GPS-coordinates of these areas are passed to robotic vehicles and the optimal route is traced based on this dataFindingsThe developed approach allows revealing impassable regions on terrain map and associating them with GPS-coordinates, whereas these regions can be edited by the user.Practical implicationsThe total duration of the algorithm, including the step with Mask R-CNN network on the same dataset of 120 items was 7.5 s.Originality/valueCreating an orthophotomap from 120 images with image resolution of 470 × 425 px requires less than 6 s on a laptop with moderate computing power, what justifies using such algorithms in the field without any powerful and expensive hardware.