Geological structures extraction from slope instabilities using GB-SAR data

Slope instabilities, in natural or engineered slopes, are geo-hazards that pose a serious risk in terms of human and economic costs. The study of this phenomenon has increased its relevancy due to the effects of climate change since the tendency of the increasing rainfalls will also increase the frequency of slope instability occurrence. Also, in engineered scenarios such as open pit mines, the safety requirements have been stricter in recent years, focusing on improving the safety of the workers and decreasing the operational risks. Hence, the study of the structures that are involved in the mass movement is relevant to improve the knowledge of the phenomenon itself. Moreover, the use of remote sensing technology such as Ground Base Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-SAR) has opened the possibility of monitoring in real-time, with high resolution, the deformation of the slopes, giving a wide time window for decision-making about the risk management of this hazard. Obtaining the geological structures from GB-SAR data can provide a fast input to do a kinematic analysis for the slope stability modeling, and a fast estimation of the volume of soil or rock involved. Using a semi-automatic algorithm on a GB-SAR velocity map, that filters the velocities, detects the edges of the moving areas, and uses an iterative algorithm for plane fitting on the edges, it is possible to find the planes that best fit the geological structures related to the slope displacement. However, the effectiveness of this algorithm depends on the Digital Terrain Model (DTM), the size and geometry of the edges, and the noise in the raw data.