Advanced image analysis for automated mapping of landslide surface fissures

Abstract

Surface fissures are potential indicators of slope instabilities and considerably influence infiltration characteristics of the soil. The increasing availability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) enables the observation of surface features at unprecedented detail and this study develops an image processing method combining Gaussian filters and objectoriented image analysis to map such features in very-high resolution (VHR) aerial images largely automatically. At three different time steps the results of the technique are compared with expert elaborated maps. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.