Category: Mass movements

2017.05 | Triggering and Motion of Landslides – Eduardo Alonso (Rankine Lecture – video)

Triggering and Motion of Landslides

57th Rankine Lecture

British Geotechnical Association

Dear colleagues, I would like to share with you the keynote lecture by Professor Eduardo Alonso, from the Universitat Politecnica of Catalunya (UPC).

Prof. Alonso has always been a leading figure in landslides and slope stability investigation. He has has won several medals, prizes and awards, and his achievements in civil Engineering are countless (e.g. he has been invited to multiple lectures and published more than 600 articles in international journals and conference proceedings), so I am not going to make you feel depressed with his astonishing achievements…

On a personal level, he has always been an example and guide to all his students in Engineering Geology and Civil Engineering in Barcelona, myself included.

Enjoy!

 

https://www.ice.org.uk/eventarchive/57-rankine-lecture-london

2017.05 | 6th Interdisciplinary workshop on Rockfall Protection

cabecera17[1]

I have been invited to participate as a member of the scientific committee on the 6th Interdisciplinary workshop on Rockfall Protection that will take place in Barcelona in May 2017. Previous RocExs workshops were held in rocky-active areas such as Japan (1999), France (2005), Switzerland (2008), Austria (2011) and Italy (2014). The workshop is being organized by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya, on behalf of the Rockfall Expert Network and the Joint Technical Committee of the ISSMFE, ISRM and IAEG.

According to the workshop website, the following topics will be discussed:

    • Rockfall source identification and characterization
    • Rockfall inventory and/or mapping
    • Parameters’ characterization and tests
    • Hazard and risk analyses
    • Rockfall modeling
    • Monitoring and alert systems
    • Mitigation and protective measures
    • Large rockfalls and rock avalanches
    • Case histories

In addition, a one day filed trip in  Montserrat Mountain is also scheduled, covering following topics:

• Rockfall hazard and risk characteristics in Montserrat Mountain (Sanctuary and Natural Park) and singular rockfall recent events
• Rockmass monitoring (jointmetric sensors, TLS, Total station, GbSAR)
• Rockfall protection for access infrastructures (roads and rack railway) and buildings: stabilization works and protective fences

The website containing useful information is already online here: http://congress.cimne.com/rocexs2017/frontal/default.asp

Hoping to see you there!

All the best,

Antonio

2017.03 | Postdoc position: Rockslide mapping / Landslide mapping

Hi, I thought that this information might be interesting to some of you..

Project Position as Researcher – Rockslide mapping /
Landslide mapping

Application deadline: 2nd March 2017

The Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) is seeking to appoint a highly qualified and motivated geologist in its Geohazard and earth observation team… The work will focus on systematic mapping of unstable rock slopes using remote sensing techniques and field work. In addition is the assessment of monitoring data from unstable slopes and database work of importance. … Additional skills and experience in one or more of the following fields would be beneficial: remote sensing using ground-based or satellite-based techniques (e.g. dGNSS, LIDAR, RADAR), modelling of run-out behaviour of different landslide types, stability modelling, Quaternary geology, MatLab. The candidate should have good knowledge of GIS. The candidate should have a driving license category B.

Applicants should have completed a doctor degree at the time of appointment. The successful candidate should demonstrate the ability to work independently, as well as within a multidisciplinary team. The applicant is expected to exchange ideas and results with colleagues and take an interest in national and international research collaboration… The geohazard and earth observation team at NGU is a dynamic team including 13 scientists from Norway and 7 other countries.

More information here

2015.08 | RockRisk project | UPC | New website

Hi!

Good news, we have a new website for the RockRisk project,

This is challenging project leaded by my colleagues at Technical school of Catalonia (Nieves Lantada and Jordi Corominas) aiming to investigate rockfall hazard and risk, both studying rockfall volumes, fragmentation, propagation and vulnerability of the building to rockfall impacts.

Please, take a look at the website and collaborators here: http://rockrisk.upc.edu/

RockRisk

 

2015.07 | Fieldwork | Pyrinees | UPC

I’ve been doing an intense fieldwork campaign on the Aiguestortes Natural park (@ Pyrenees) with Jordi Corominas and his team, we were many different people involved and we had the opportunity to test several sensors, including our LiDAR, hexacopter, terrestrial photogrametry, total station, GPS … it was very funny, a great area to stay and a very nice company that helped providing interesting discussions, invited to beers and helped carrying the heavy equipment.. thanks!

 

DSC_2657

 

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0526.

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DCIM100GOPROGOPR0505.

Thanks to Felipe Buill, From the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) for sending some pictures!

2015.04 | Article comment | AGU landslide website | Petley’s blog

Hi,

today I have had a very good surprise, one of our publications has been cited by David Petley in his well known “landslide blog”. You can read his review here:

http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2015/04/13/review-progressive-failure-spain/

This is a good recognisement of more than seven years monitoring on the cliff where I developed most of my PhD methods for rockfall detection and prediction..

Dave_Blog

2015.01 | Special Issue | Use of LiDAR and 3D point clouds in Geohazards

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to consider submitting a manuscript to this Special Issue:

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Special Issue Information

Contributions aiming to use 3D point clouds for investigating natural phenomena (including ground deformation, landslides, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, soil erosion, etc.) that pose serious risks to human beings or infrastructures will be much appreciated in this special issue. We aim to put together innovative contributions about novel processing techniques and original applications of three-dimensional techniques in Geohazards. Some examples include, but are not limited to:

  • Novel technologies or procedures for dynamic acquisition of 3D point clouds
  • New computational methods related with the monitoring of natural phenomena
  • Semi-automatic extraction of terrain features related with the characterization of geological hazard
  • Integration of very high quality data for improving the modeling of geohazards
  • Recent case studies: innovative analysis and interpretation of Geohazards
  • Use of three-dimensional systems in laboratory scale experiments (micro scale)
  • Improvements in regional mapping derived from high quality 3D data
  • Pioneering initiatives for the creation of 3D databases, web visualization and data sharing
  • Further related topics.

———————————————

Guest Editors: Dr. Michel Jaboyedoff,  Antonio Abellan and Marc-Henri Derron

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2015

http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/special_issues/geohazards

2014.12 | Invited Conference | AGU | San Francisco

Hi,

I have good news!: I will perform an invited talk at the AGU conference at San Francisco this year.

The title of the conference is “Recent advances in analysis and prediction of Rock Falls, Rock Slides, and Rock Avalanches using 3D point clouds“, within the session of Greg Stock (Yosemite National Park), Brian Collins (U.S. Geological Survey) and Jeffrey Moore (University of Utah).

It will be an honor having the possibility to present our recent (and future) research there… so thanks to all the people that made this dream become possible! this will be one of the best Christmas present ever. Please take a look to the conference abstract here: https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Paper/2299

 

NH43B-08: Recent advances in analysis and prediction of Rock Falls, Rock Slides, and Rock Avalanches using 3D point clouds Thursday, 18 December 2014: 3:25

 Antonio Abellan1, Dario Carrea1, Michel Jaboyedoff1, Adrian Riquelme2, Roberto Tomas2, Manuel Jesus Royan3, Joan Manuel Vilaplana3 and Neal Gauvin4,

 

2014.08 – Video Lectures on Engineering Geology

The International Association of Engineering Geology (IAEG) is publishing a series of video lectures that will be freely available in streaming for the scientific ant technical community.  They are very interesting… enjoy!

Video Lecture #2: Mapping, Monitoring and Modelling of Rockslides (Prof. Giovanni B. Crosta):
Video Lecture #1: Rock Mass classification, an engineering geological assessment. Application and limitation (Prof. Paul G. Marinos)