A professor from the University of Tasmania and as many as 20 of his students are using two ‘OctoKopters’ UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles to create a detailed 3D map of a landslide in Ranelagh, Tasmania, Australia. The UAVs are deployed by Dr. Arko Lucieer and the TerraLuma project team as a cheap alternative to high-resolution satellite imagery. Flying at altitudes ranging from just 50 m to 120 m, they can photograph micro-topography in remarkable detail. The OctoKopter UAV platform runs about $3,000AU (about $3,200US) but with the payload of a digital SLR camera, six-band multispectral sensor and thermal sensor, the cost is more like $60,000AU each (about $65,000US). On a previous project in Antarctica, the team was able to produce 3D point clouds with a 1cm point spacing. Dr. Lucieer is also investigating using the two OctoKopters and a larger third on order by the UTAS School of Geography and Environmental Studies as a cheaper alternative platform for aerial LIDAR surveys. [Source: University of Tasmania, Australia. Image: lucieer.net]
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Devil’s Slide Tunnel, Project Updates and Geotechnical Info
Devil’s Slide is an infamous landslide along California’s Highway 1 or Pacific Coast Highway near Pacifica, just south of the San Francisco Bay area. Caltrans’ Devil’s Slide Tunnel project is an effort to bypass that slide and make the heavily traveled roadway safe for drivers and to eliminate the maintenance and traffic hassles caused by slope failures blocking the road. We first covered the project back in September of 2007 when the tunnel portion of the project commenced. In that post, you can find a Google Earth KML File showing the location of the tunnels and the new bridges associated with the project. In this post, I’ll provide you with some updated progress information as well as some background on the geotechnical and other aspects of the project. More links and videos are at the end of the post. (Photo by Kim Komenich, San Francisco Chronicle). […]