ADVICE: a new approach for near-real-time monitoring of surface displacements in landslide hazard scenarios

Abstract

We present a new method for near-real-time monitoring of surface displacements due to landslide phenomena, namely ADVanced dIsplaCement monitoring system for Early warning (ADVICE). The procedure includes: (i) data acquisition and transfer protocols; (ii) data collection, filtering, and validation; (iii) data analysis and restitution through a set of dedicated software; (iv) recognition of displacement/velocity threshold, early warning messages via SMS and/or emails; (v) automatic publication of the results on a dedicated webpage. We show how the system evolved and the results obtained by applying ADVICE over three years into a real early warning scenario relevant to a large earthflow located in southern Italy. ADVICE has speed-up and facilitated the understanding of the landslide phenomenon, the communication of the monitoring results to the partners, and consequently the decision-making process in a critical scenario. Our work might have potential applications not only for landslide monitoring but also in other contexts, as monitoring of other geohazards and of complex infrastructures, as open-pit mines, buildings, dams, etc.

Figure 1.

Bar-chart to schematically represent the main requirements of EWS in landslide scenarios. Green areas represent the current level of development achieved, white areas stay for unexpressed potential, respectively. In the context of EWS, the state-of-art of some elements already reached a high level of development (i and ii), while others have still a high potential (iii, iv, and v).

Figure 2.

Rationale of the ADVICE system as applied for displacement monitoring via RTS in a landslide scenario.

Figure 3.

Detailed Flow Chart of the ADVICE key elements.

Figure 4.

Detailed flow chart of the ©3DA Algorithm as implemented in Matlab^®.

Figure 5.

(a) Overview of Montaguto landslide; (b) Geological map of the Montaguto area. A: Flysch formation (Burdig. sup.—Langhiano Inf.); B: Argillaceous marl unit (Messin. Sup.—Plioc. Inf.); C: Arenitic unit (Mess. Inf.); D: Conglomeratic Unit; E: Ligurid unit; F: Alluvial deposits.

Figure 6.

Representation of the displacement occurred at the landslide's toe during the emergency phase. (a) Monitoring network schema, with the traces drawn by the targets monitored via the RTS during the first month. Targets monitored via manual measurements (in the white boxes) show very little displacements; (b) and (c) are the time series of the planimetric and altimetric displacements, respectively, monitored via the RTS. These representations evidence a non-homogenous landslide evolution, which is very hard to understand by using only 2-D plots.

Figure 7.

Example of the displacements synoptic map included in the bulletins. This representation can be considered as a precursor of the subsequent ©3DA representation.

Figure 8.

©3DA representation of the same dataset shown in Figure 7.

Figure 9.

©3DA representation of ground displacements occurred in the period 10–17 March 2013 with indications of targets that overcome predefined warning (yellow) and alarm (red) surface velocity thresholds. This reactivation occurred after a rain precipitation of about 50 mm within one week. Note the targets installed on the earth reinforcing barriers, marked with “S”.

Figure 10.

Example of the webpage dedicated to the near-real-time dissemination of monitoring data relevant to the Montaguto landslide.