Derivation of Three-Dimensional Displacement Vectors from Multi-Temporal Long-Range Terrestrial Laser Scanning at the Reissenschuh Landslide (Tyrol, Austria)

• Main Authors: Jan Pfeiffer, Thomas Zieher, Magnus Bremer, Volker Wichmann, Martin Rutzinger
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-10-01
• Series: Remote Sensing
• Subjects: DSGSD; landslide monitoring; laser scanning; remote sensing; geomorphological breaklines; Reissenschuh landslide
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/11/1688

Deep-seated gravitational slope deformations (DSGSDs) endanger settlements and infrastructure in mountain areas all over the world. To prevent disastrous events, their activity needs to be continuously monitored. In this paper, the movement of the Reissenschuh DSGSD in the Schmirn valley (Tyrol, Austria) is quantified based on point clouds acquired with a Riegl VZ^&#174;-6000 long-range laser scanner in 2016 and 2017. Geomorphological features (e.g., block edges, terrain ridges, scarps) travelling on top of the landslide are extracted from the acquired point clouds using morphometric attributes based on locally computed eigenvectors and -values. The corresponding representations of the extracted features in the multi-temporal data are exploited to derive 3D displacement vectors based on a workflow exploiting the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm. The subsequent analysis reveals spatial patterns of landslide movement with mean displacements in the order of 0.62 ma<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msup> <mrow></mrow> <mrow> <mo>&#8722;</mo> <mn>1</mn> </mrow> </msup> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>, corresponding well with measurements at characteristic points using a differential global navigation satellite system (DGNSS). The results are also compared to those derived from a modified version of the well-known image correlation (IMCORR) method using shaded reliefs of the derived digital terrain models. The applied extended ICP algorithm outperforms the raster-based method particularly in areas with predominantly vertical movement.