A landslide monitoring method using data from unmanned aerial vehicle and terrestrial laser scanning with insufficient and inaccurate ground control points

Non-contact remote sensing techniques,such as terrestrial laser scanning(TLS)and unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)photogrammetry,have been globally applied for landslide monitoring in high and steep mountainous areas.These techniques acquire terrain data and enable ground deformation monitoring.However,practical application of these technologies still faces many difficulties due to complex terrain,limited access and dense vegetation.For instance,monitoring high and steep slopes can obstruct the TLS sightline,and the accuracy of the UAV model may be compromised by absence of ground control points(GCPs).This paper proposes a TLS-and UAV-based method for monitoring landslide deformation in high mountain valleys using traditional real-time kinematics(RTK)-based control points(RCPs),low-precision TLS-based control points(TCPs)and assumed control points(ACPs)to achieve high-precision surface deformation analysis under obstructed vision and impassable conditions.The effects of GCP accuracy,GCP quantity and automatic tie point(ATP)quantity on the accuracy of UAV modeling and surface deformation analysis were comprehensively analyzed.The results show that,the proposed method allows for the monitoring accuracy of landslides to exceed the accuracy of the GCPs themselves by adding additional low-accuracy GCPs.The proposed method was implemented for monitoring the Xinhua landslide in Baoxing County,China,and was validated against data from multiple sources.

Tree species identity and interaction determine vertical forest structure in young planted forests measured by terrestrial laser scanning

Vertical forest structure is closely linked to multiple ecosystem characteristics,such as biodiversity,habitat,and productivity.Mixing tree species in planted forests has the potential to create diverse vertical forest structures due to the different physiological and morphological traits of the composing tree species.However,the relative importance of species richness,species identity and species interactions for the variation in vertical forest structure remains unclear,mainly because traditional forest inventories do not observe vertical stand structure in detail.Terrestrial laser scanning(TLS),however,allows to study vertical forest structure in an unprecedented way.Therefore,we used TLS single scan data from 126 plots across three experimental planted forests of a largescale tree diversity experiment in Belgium to study the drivers of vertical forest structure.These plots were 9–11years old young pure and mixed forests,characterized by four levels of tree species richness ranging from monocultures to four-species mixtures,across twenty composition levels.We generated vertical plant profiles from the TLS data and derived six stand structural variables.Linear mixed models were used to test the effect of species richness on structural variables.Employing a hierarchical diversity interaction modelling framework,we further assessed species identity effect and various species interaction effects on the six stand structural variables.Our results showed that species richness did not significantly influence most of the stand structure variables,except for canopy height and foliage height diversity.Species identity on the other hand exhibited a significant impact on vertical forest structure across all sites.Species interaction effects were observed to be site-dependent due to varying site conditions and species pools,and rapidly growing tree species tend to dominate these interactions.Overall,our results highlighted the importance of considering both species identity and interaction effects in choosing suitable species combinations for forest management practices aimed at enhancing vertical forest structure.

Automatic identification of rock discontinuity and stability analysis of tunnel rock blocks using terrestrial laser scanning

Local geometric information and discontinuity features are key aspects of the analysis of the evolution and failure mechanisms of unstable rock blocks in rock tunnels.This study demonstrates the integration of terrestrial laser scanning(TLS)with distinct element method for rock mass characterization and stability analysis in tunnels.TLS records detailed geometric information of the surrounding rock mass by scanning and collecting the positions of millions of rock surface points without contact.By conducting a fuzzy K-means method,a discontinuity automatic identification algorithm was developed,and a method for obtaining the geometric parameters of discontinuities was proposed.This method permits the user to visually identify each discontinuity and acquire its spatial distribution features(e.g.occurrences,spac-ings,trace lengths)in great detail.Compared with hand mapping in conventional geotechnical surveys,the geometric information of discontinuities obtained by this approach is more accurate and the iden-tification is more efficient.Then,a discrete fracture network with the same statistical characteristics as the actual discontinuities was generated with the distinct element method,and a representative nu-merical model of the jointed surrounding rock mass was established.By means of numerical simulation,potential unstable rock blocks were assessed,and failure mechanisms were analyzed.This method was applied to detection and assessment of unstable rock blocks in the spillway and sand flushing tunnel of the Hongshiyan hydropower project after a collapse.The results show that the noncontact detection of blocks was more labor-saving with lower safety risks compared with manual surveys,and the stability assessment was more reliable since the numerical model built by this method was more consistent with the distribution characteristics of actual joints.This study can provide a reference for geological survey and unstable rock block hazard mitigation in tunnels subjected to complex geology and active rockfalls.

Study on the LAI Single Tree Model Based on Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Leaf area index (LAI) is a key parameter for studying global terrestrial ecology and environment and has great ecological significance. How to accurately measure and calculate structural parameters of trees has become an urgent matter. This paper reports the use of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) as a measurement tool to achieve accurate LAI estimation through point cloud preprocessing measures, the LeWos algorithm, and voxel methods. The accuracy and feasibility of this indirect measurement method were explored. It is found that the single wood structure parameters extracted from TLS have a good linear relationship with manual measurement, and the extraction errors meet the requirements of real-scene conversion. The study also found when the voxel size is consistent with the minimum distance of the point cloud set by TLS instrument, it has a strong correlation with the measured value of canopy analyser. These results lay the foundation for conveniently and quickly obtaining structural parameters of trees, tree growth state detection, and canopy ecological benefit assessment.

Geostructural stability assessment of cave using rock surface discontinuity extracted from terrestrial laser scanning point cloud

The use of terrestrial laser scanning（TLS） in the caves has been growing drastically over the last decade.However, TLS application to cave stability assessment has not received much attention of researchers.This study attempted to utilize rock surface orientations obtained from TLS point cloud collected along cave passages to（1） investigate the influence of rock geostructure on cave passage development, and（2）assess cave stability by determining areas susceptible to different failure types. The TLS point cloud was divided into six parts（Entry hall, Chamber, Main hall, Shaft 1, Shaft 2 and Shaft 3）, each representing different segments of the cave passages. Furthermore, the surface orientation information was extracted and grouped into surface discontinuity joint sets. The computed global mean and best-fit planes of the entire cave show that the outcrop dips 290° with a major north-south strike. But at individual level, the passages with dip angle between 26° and 80° are featured with dip direction of 75°-322°. Kinematic tests reveal the potential for various failure modes of rock slope. Our findings show that toppling is the dominant failure type accounting for high-risk rockfall in the cave, with probabilities of 75.26%, 43.07%and 24.82% in the Entry hall, Main hall and Shaft 2, respectively. Unlike Shaft 2 characterized by high risk of the three failure types（32.49%, 24.82% and 50%）, the chamber and Shaft 3 passages are not suffering from slope failure. The results also show that the characteristics of rock geostructure considerably influence the development of the cave passages, and four sections of the cave are susceptible to different slope failure types, at varying degrees of risk.

Quantification of occlusions influencing the tree stem curve retrieving from single-scan terrestrial laser scanning data

Background: The stem curve of standing trees is an essential parameter for accurate estimation of stem volume.This study aims to directly quantify the occlusions within the single-scan terrestrial laser scanning(TLS) data,evaluate its correlation with the accuracy of the retrieved stem curves, and subsequently, to assess the capacity of single-scan TLS to estimate stem curves.Methods: We proposed an index, occlusion rate, to quantify the occlusion level in TLS data. We then analyzed three influencing factors for the occlusion rate: the percentage of basal area near the scanning center, the scanning distance and the source of occlusions. Finally, we evaluated the effects of occlusions on stem curve estimates from single-scan TLS data.Results: The results showed that the correlations between the occlusion rate and the stem curve estimation accuracies were strong(r = 0.60–0.83), so was the correlations between the occlusion rate and its influencing factors(r = 0.84–0.99). It also showed that the occlusions from tree stems were the main factor of the low detection rate of stems, while the non-stem components mainly influenced the completeness of the retrieved stem curves.Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that the occlusions significantly affect the accuracy of stem curve retrieval from the single-scan TLS data in a typical-size(32 m × 32 m) forest plot. However, the single-scan mode has the capacity to accurately estimate the stem curve in a small forest plot(< 10 m × 10 m) or a plot with a lower occlusion rate, such as less than 35% in our tested datasets. The findings from this study are useful for guiding the practice of retrieving forest parameters using single-scan TLS data.

基于TLS数据的站场线路点云提取算法

铁路站场线路几何信息对于铁路安全管理与维护具有重要意义。由于铁路站场内包含多条线路,且轨道错综复杂,使得从大场景点云中自动提取多股道钢轨点云成为难题。地面激光扫描TLS(Terrestrial Laser Scanning)作为非接触式测量手段,可快速获取铁路场景中的海量点云数据。针对TLS技术获取的铁路站场点云数据,提出一种基于Delaunay三角网聚类的多股道钢轨点云提取算法。基于分割-归并的思想,在获取铁路站场高精度点云后,沿站场线路方向将点云分为若干段,基于轨道平顺性特征,利用三角网聚类算法逐段提取钢轨顶面点云。在归并阶段整合站场中各股道轨面点云信息,将各段轨面点云连接起来,同时匹配左右轨面点云。将该方法在玉林站部分站场区域进行实例验证,提取到的轨道点云在对象层面上的总体精度为93.95%,完整度为90.57%,准确度为97.59%,相较于平面格网法,提取总体精度提升了5.65%,准确度提升了18.49%。在10处截面提取轨面宽度与轨距,统计结果表明轨面宽度中误差为5.2 mm,轨距中误差为5.3 mm,满足工程精度需要。实例结果表明,算法可准确有效提取站场多股道钢轨顶面点云,为铁路场景中其他结构物的TLS数据提取工作提供借鉴思路。

Assessment of handheld mobile terrestrial laser scanning for estimating tree parameters

Sustainable forest management heavily relies on the accurate estimation of tree parameters.Among others,the diameter at breast height(DBH) is important for extracting the volume and mass of an individual tree.For systematically estimating the volume of entire plots,airborne laser scanning(ALS) data are used.The estimation model is frequently calibrated using manual DBH measurements or static terrestrial laser scans(STLS) of sample plots.Although reliable,this method is time-consuming,which greatly hampers its use.Here,a handheld mobile terrestrial laser scanning(HMTLS) was demonstrated to be a useful alternative technique to precisely and efficiently calculate DBH.Different data acquisition techniques were applied at a sample plot,then the resulting parameters were comparatively analysed.The calculated DBH values were comparable to the manual measurements for HMTLS,STLS,and ALS data sets.Given the comparability of the extracted parameters,with a reduced point density of HTMLS compared to STLS data,and the reasonable increase of performance,with a reduction of acquisition time with a factor of5 compared to conventional STLS techniques and a factor of3 compared to manual measurements,HMTLS is considered a useful alternative technique.

Usingvery long-range terrestriallaser scanner to analyze the temporal consistency of the snowpack distribution in a high mountain environment

This study demonstrated the usefulness of very long-range terrestrial laser scanning(TLS) for analysis of the spatial distribution of a snowpack, to distances up to 3000 m, one of the longest measurement range reported to date. Snow depth data were collected using a terrestrial laser scanner during 11 periods of snow accumulation and melting,over three snow seasons on a Pyrenean hillslopecharacterized by a large elevational gradient, steep slopes, and avalanche occurrence. The maximum and mean absolute snow depth error found was 0.5-0.6 and 0.2-0.3 m respectively, which may result problematic for areas with a shallow snowpack, but it is sufficiently accurate to determine snow distribution patterns in areas characterized by a thick snowpack. The results indicated that in most cases there was temporal consistency in the spatial distribution of thesnowpack, even in different years. The spatial patterns were particularly similar amongst thesurveys conducted during the period dominated by snow accumulation(generally until end of April), or amongst those conducted during the period dominated by melting processes(generally after mid of April or early May). Simple linear correlation analyses for the 11 survey dates, and the application of Random Forests analysis to two days representative of snow accumulation and melting periods indicated the importance of topography to the snow distribution. The results also highlight that elevation and the Topographic Position index(TPI) were the main variables explaining the snow distribution, especially during periods dominated by melting. The intra-and inter-annual spatial consistency of the snowpack distribution suggests that the geomorphological processes linked to presence/absence of snow cover act in a similar way in the long term, and that these spatial patternscan be easily identifiedthrough several years of adequate monitoring.

基于TLS的建筑物外型扫测距离偏差研究

为了更好地提高基于地面三维激光扫描仪扫测建筑物外型的点位精度,通过分析建筑物外型反射面的几何构成,对TLS激光光束装置进行深入研究,推导出影响点位精度的距离偏差公式.采用3种不同类型的地面三维激光扫描仪,设计不同的扫测距离和扫测倾角进行实验,实验验证公式的正确性.实验分析结果揭示了不同扫测距离和扫测倾角与距离偏差的关系,适用于各种地面三维激光扫描仪,具有较好的通用性,对扫测复杂外型建筑物具有重要指导意义.

Natural forest ALS-TLS point cloud data registration without control points

Airborne laser scanning(ALS)and terrestrial laser scanning(TLS)has attracted attention due to their forest parameter investigation and research applications.ALS is limited to obtaining fi ne structure information below the forest canopy due to the occlusion of trees in natural forests.In contrast,TLS is unable to gather fi ne structure information about the upper canopy.To address the problem of incomplete acquisition of natural forest point cloud data by ALS and TLS on a single platform,this study proposes data registration without control points.The ALS and TLS original data were cropped according to sample plot size,and the ALS point cloud data was converted into relative coordinates with the center of the cropped data as the origin.The same feature point pairs of the ALS and TLS point cloud data were then selected to register the point cloud data.The initial registered point cloud data was fi nely and optimally registered via the iterative closest point(ICP)algorithm.The results show that the proposed method achieved highprecision registration of ALS and TLS point cloud data from two natural forest plots of Pinus yunnanensis Franch.and Picea asperata Mast.which included diff erent species and environments.An average registration accuracy of 0.06 m and 0.09 m were obtained for P.yunnanensis and P.asperata,respectively.

Trunk volume estimation of irregular shaped Populus euphratica riparian forest using TLS point cloud data and multivariate prediction models

Background: Trunk volume(Vt) is an essential parameter for estimating forest stand volume, biomass, and carbon sequestration potential. As the dominant tree species in desert riparian forests, Euphrates poplar(Populus euphratica) has a high proportion of irregularly shaped tree trunks along the Tarim River, NW China, where the habitat is very fragile owing to long-term water stress. This causes uncertainty in estimation accuracy as well as technical challenges for forest surveys. Our study aimed to acquire P. euphratica Vtusing terrestrial laser scanning(TLS) and to establish a species-specific Vtprediction model.Methods: A total of 240 individual trees were measured by TLS multiple-station in 12 sampling plots in three sections along the lower reaches of the Tarim River. Vtwas calculated by a definite integration method using trunk diameters(Di) at every 0.1-m tree height obtained from TLS, and all data were split randomly into two sets:70% of data were used to estimate the model parameter calibration, and the remaining 30% were used for model validation. Sixteen widely used candidate tree Vtestimation models were fitted to the TLS-measured Vtand tree structural parameter data, including tree height(H), diameter at breast height(DBH), and basal diameter(BD). All model performances were evaluated and compared by the statistical parameters of determination coefficient(R^(2)),root mean square error(RMSE), Bayesian information criterion(BIC), mean prediction error(ME), mean absolute error(MAE), and modeling efficiency(EF), and accordingly the best model was selected.Results: TLS point cloud reflection intensity(RI) has advantageous in the extraction of data from irregular tree trunk structures. The P. euphratica tree Vtvalues showed obvious differences at the same tree height(H). There was no significant correlation between Vtand H(R^(2)=0.11, P < 0.01), which reflected the irregularity of P. euphratica trunk shape in the study area. Among all the models, model(14): Vt=0.909DBH1.184H0.487BD0.836(R^(2)=0.97, RMSE=0.14) had the best prediction capability for irregularly shaped Vtwith the highest R^(2), BIC(-37.96), and EF(0.96), and produced a smaller ME(0.006) and MAE(1.177) compared to other models. The prediction accuracy was 93.18%.Conclusions: TLS point cloud RI has a potential for nondestructively measuring irregularly shaped trunk structures of P. euphratica and developed Vtprediction models. The multivariate models more effectively predicted Vtfor irregularly shaped trees compared to one-way and general volume models.

Building 3D CityGML models of mining industrial structures using integrated UAV and TLS point clouds

Mining industrial areas with anthropogenic engineering structures are one of the most distinctive features of the real world.3D models of the real world have been increasingly popular with numerous applications,such as digital twins and smart factory management.In this study,3D models of mining engineering structures were built based on the CityGML standard.For collecting spatial data,the two most popular geospatial technologies,namely UAV-SfM and TLS were employed.The accuracy of the UAV survey was at the centimeter level,and it satisfied the absolute positional accuracy requirement of creat-ing all levels of detail(LoD)according to the CityGML standard.Therefore,the UAV-SfM point cloud dataset was used to build LoD 2 models.In addition,the comparison between the UAV-SfM and TLS sub-clouds of facades and roofs indicates that the UAV-SfM and TLS point clouds of these objects are highly consistent,therefore,point clouds with a higher level of detail and accuracy provided by the integration of UAV-SfM and TLS were used to build LoD 3 models.The resulting 3D CityGML models include 39 buildings at LoD 2,and two mine shafts with hoistrooms,headframes,and sheave wheels at LoD3.

MDC-Net:a multi-directional constrained and prior assisted neural network for wood and leaf separation from terrestrial laser scanning

Wood-leaf separation from terrestrial laser scanning(TLS)is a crucial prerequisite for quantifying many biophysical properties and understanding ecological functions.In this study,we propose a novel multi-directional collaborative convolutional neural network(MDC-Net)that takes the original 3D coordinates and useful features from prior knowledge(prior features)as input,and outputs the semantic labels of TLS point clouds.The MDC-Net contains two key units:(1)a multi-directional neighborhood construction(MDNC)unit to obtain more representative neighbors and enable directionally aware feature encoding in the subsequent local feature extraction,to mitigate occlusion effects;(2)a collaborative feature encoding(CFE)unit is introduced to incorporate useful features from prior knowledge into the network through a collaborative cross coding to enhance the discrimination for thin structures(e.g.small branches and leaf).The MDC-Net is evaluated onfive plots from forests in Guangxi,China,with different branch architectures and leaf distributions.Experimental results showed that the MDC-Net achieved an OA of 0.973 and a mIoU of 0.821 and outperformed other related methods.We believe the MDC-Net would facilitate the usage of TLS in ecology studies for quantifying tree size and morphology and thus promote the development of relevant ecological applications.

基于TLS技术的典型建筑物震害信息三维建模分析——以彭州市白鹿中学为例

传统光学及雷达遥感技术在地震灾害损失评估中无法获取建筑物立面破坏信息,对结构已遭破坏,但顶面基本完好的建筑物识别能力较差。三维激光扫描技术(terrestrial laser scanning,TLS)可以获取建筑物结构破坏状况的高精度三维信息。利用2013年10月23日RIEGL VZ-1000三维激光扫描仪采集到的汶川地震震后彭州市白鹿中学的精细点云数据,通过不规则三角网建模和纹理贴图等处理进行三维建模分析,在此基础上对建筑物的典型破坏特征及地表破裂情况进行了详细建模研究,真实再现了白鹿中学破坏场景,实现了震害信息的永久保存。研究结果表明:位于断层上盘的勤学楼整体无明显破损;位于下盘的求知楼损毁相对严重,普遍出现"X"形的共轭剪切裂缝、构造柱断裂及露筋等现象;地震陡坎沉降量不大,高程剖面显示现今该陡坎最低高度为205 cm,最高为231 cm,与GPS测量结果大致吻合。

Reconstructing DEM using TLS point cloud data and NURBS surface

Underground coal mining inevitably results in land surface subsidence.Acquiring information on land surface subsidence is important in the detection of surface change.However,conventional data acquisition techniques cannot always retrieve information on whole subsidence area.This study focuses on the reconstruction of a digital elevation model（DEM） with terrestrial laser scanning（TLS） point cloud data.Firstly,the methodology of the DEM with terrestrial 3-dimensional laser scanning is introduced.Then,a DEM modeling approach that involves the application of curved non-uniform rational B-splines（NURBS） surface is put forward.Finally,the performance of the DEM modeling approach with different surface inverse methods is demonstrated.The results indicate that the DEM based on the point cloud data and curved NURBS surface can achieve satisfactory accuracy.In addition,the performance of the hyperbolic paraboloid appears to be better than that of the elliptic paraboloid.The reconstructed DEM is continuous and can easily be integrated into other programs.Such features are of great importance in monitoring dynamic ground surface subsidence.

基于特征选择的TLS蒙古栎人工林点云分类研究

【目的】针对点云分类过程中多依据经验盲目构造特征的问题,本研究提出使用基于xgboost的特征选择弥补上述不足。【方法】本研究的数据为地面激光雷达扫描获得的蒙古栎人工林数据。本研究考虑构造适当的特征训练分类器将TLS点云快速分离为地面、树干与枝叶3个类别。在分类过程中,先在训练集中逐点搜索100个近邻构造19个特征,然后使用这些特征训练xgboost分类器,并依据控制分类器节点分裂的特征频率获得特征重要性。获得特征重要性之后将特征按重要性做降序排列,并依据该序列依次增加特征数量训练xgboost。因为构造了19个特征,所以在上述训练分类器的过程中可获得19个关于特征重要性的分类器模型。依次将上述模型应用于测试集的分类,在保证分类器性能的情况下,依据测试集的表现选择了前6个特征,从而实现了TLS点云分类的特征选择。【结果】使用基于特征选择获得的6个特征与依据经验构造的19个特征训练分类器的测试准确率分别为0.954 8与0.956 2。相较于使用19个特征,使用6个特征的分类器性能仅降低了0.001 4。在训练集与测试集中计算6个特征用时分别占计算19个特征用时的53.13%与54.33%。【结论】结果表明特征选择策略可有效提高特征计算效率,而且在保证分类器性能的前提下可以避免特征构造的盲目性。

采用多尺度近邻体素特征的TLS林分点云分类

针对局部空间中林分点云多呈不规则分布的现状,提出了一种基于多尺度近邻体素特征的地面激光雷达林分点云分类方法。首先,通过特征选择获得六个特征,迭代使用四个尺度的八叉树分割点云,并在每个尺度下迭代遍历每个体素,搜索九个近邻体素计算点特征,实现四个尺度基于近邻体素重心的点特征估计;然后,使用LightGBM分类器完成训练,将该分类器模型应用于测试集实现林分点云分类;最后,通过分类准确率和计算特征用时作为评价指标对该方法实验结果进行评价。分析结果表明,该方法特征计算效率有较大幅度提升,可有效应用于人工林的点云分类任务。

基于双尺度体元覆盖密度的TLS点云数据单木识别算法

针对现有的地基激光雷达(Terrestrial Laser Scanning,TLS)点云数据单木识别算法存在抗噪性差的问题,本文提出一种基于双尺度体元覆盖密度的TLS点云数据单木识别算法。首先选择内蒙古根河林场的兴安落叶松天然次生林为研究对象,利用徕卡C10三维激光扫描仪获取单测站点云数据;然后通过计算双尺度体元覆盖密度滤除非树干点;最后通过分析体元水平坐标(x,y)位置处的体元z值序列确定滤波后点云数据中的单木位置。研究结果表明:该算法二次滤波结果的平均噪声比为1.66%;滤波后保留的单木数量是实际单木数量的88.94%;滤波后点云数据的单木识别率98.3%,漏检率1.69%,过检率0.56%,实际点云数据的单木识别精度为87.43%。与已有的单测站点云数据单木识别的研究相比,本文提出的单木识别算法简单、抗噪性强且单木识别精度更高,这对于实现复杂密集林分样地单测站点云数据单木的准确识别具有重要意义。

基于体元逐层聚类的TLS点云数据单木分割算法

为了提高地基激光雷达(Terrestrial Laser Scanning,TLS)点云数据的单木分割精度及分割效率,以落叶期的蒙古栎人工林为研究对象,以TLS为基础数据,在三维点云数据体元化的基础上提出一种基于体元逐层聚类的单木分割算法,通过分析体元在竖直方向的z值序列准确获取单木的位置,然后利用模糊C均值算法以单木位置为初始聚类中心从最底层体元开始进行逐层聚类,最终实现样地水平蒙古栎单木分割。研究结果表明,通过分析体元在竖直方向的z值序列能准确获取单木的位置,本研究提出的单木分割算法能够实现样地水平单木的精确分割。