A fractal fragmentation model for rockfalls

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10346-016-0773-8The impact-induced rock mass fragmentation in a rockfall is analyzed by comparing the in situ block size distribution (IBSD) of the rock mass detached from the cliff face and the resultant rockfall block size distribution (RBSD) of the rockfall fragments on the slope. The analysis of several inventoried rockfall events suggests that the volumes of the rockfall fragments can be characterized by a power law distribution. We propose the application of a three-parameter rockfall fractal fragmentation model (RFFM) for the transformation of the IBSD into the RBSD. A discrete fracture network model is used to simulate the discontinuity pattern of the detached rock mass and to generate the IBSD. Each block of the IBSD of the detached rock mass is an initiator. A survival rate is included to express the proportion of the unbroken blocks after the impact on the ground surface. The model was calibrated using the volume distribution of a rockfall event in Vilanova de Banat in the Cadí Sierra, Eastern Pyrenees, Spain. The RBSD was obtained directly in the field, by measuring the rock block fragments deposited on the slope. The IBSD and the RBSD were fitted by exponential and power law functions, respectively. The results show that the proposed fractal model can successfully generate the RBSD from the IBSD and indicate the model parameter values for the case study.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

GENERATIVE NETWORKS FOR POINT CLOUD GENERATION IN CULTURAL HERITAGE DOMAIN

none6noIn the Cultural Heritage (CH) domain, the semantic segmentation of 3D point clouds with Deep Learning (DL) techniques allows to recognize historical architectural elements, at a suitable level of detail, and hence expedite the process of modelling historical buildings for the development of BIM models from survey data. However, it is more difficult to collect a balanced dataset of labelled architectural elements for training a network. In fact, the CH objects are unique, and it is challenging for the network to recognize this kind of data. In recent years, Generative Networks have proven to be proper for generating new data. Starting from such premises, in this paper Generative Networks have been used for augmenting a CH dataset. In particular, the performances of three state-of-art Generative Networks such as PointGrow, PointFLow and PointGMM have been compared in terms of Jensen-Shannon Divergence (JSD), the Minimum Matching Distance-Chamfer Distance (MMD-CD) and the Minimum Matching Distance-Earth Mover’s Distance (MMD-EMD). The objects generated have been used for augmenting two classes of ArCH dataset, which are columns and windows. Then a DGCNN-Mod network was trained and tested for the semantic segmentation task, comparing the performance in the case of the ArCH dataset without and with augmentation.openRoberto Pierdicca, Marina Paolanti, Ramona Quattrini, Massimo Martini, Eva Savina Malinverni, Emanuele FrontoniPierdicca, Roberto; Paolanti, Marina; Quattrini, Ramona; Martini, Massimo; Malinverni, Eva Savina; Frontoni, Emanuel

GeoAI-enhanced Techniques to Support Geographical Knowledge Discovery from Big Geospatial Data

abstract: Big data that contain geo-referenced attributes have significantly reformed the way that I process and analyze geospatial data. Compared with the expected benefits received in the data-rich environment, more data have not always contributed to more accurate analysis. “Big but valueless” has becoming a critical concern to the community of GIScience and data-driven geography. As a highly-utilized function of GeoAI technique, deep learning models designed for processing geospatial data integrate powerful computing hardware and deep neural networks into various dimensions of geography to effectively discover the representation of data. However, limitations of these deep learning models have also been reported when People may have to spend much time on preparing training data for implementing a deep learning model. The objective of this dissertation research is to promote state-of-the-art deep learning models in discovering the representation, value and hidden knowledge of GIS and remote sensing data, through three research approaches. The first methodological framework aims to unify varied shadow into limited number of patterns, with the convolutional neural network (CNNs)-powered shape classification, multifarious shadow shapes with a limited number of representative shadow patterns for efficient shadow-based building height estimation. The second research focus integrates semantic analysis into a framework of various state-of-the-art CNNs to support human-level understanding of map content. The final research approach of this dissertation focuses on normalizing geospatial domain knowledge to promote the transferability of a CNN’s model to land-use/land-cover classification. This research reports a method designed to discover detailed land-use/land-cover types that might be challenging for a state-of-the-art CNN’s model that previously performed well on land-cover classification only.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Geography 201

A BENCHMARK FOR LARGE-SCALE HERITAGE POINT CLOUD SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION

The lack of benchmarking data for the semantic segmentation of digital heritage scenarios is hampering the development of automatic classification solutions in this field. Heritage 3D data feature complex structures and uncommon classes that prevent the simple deployment of available methods developed in other fields and for other types of data. The semantic classification of heritage 3D data would support the community in better understanding and analysing digital twins, facilitate restoration and conservation work, etc. In this paper, we present the first benchmark with millions of manually labelled 3D points belonging to heritage scenarios, realised to facilitate the development, training, testing and evaluation of machine and deep learning methods and algorithms in the heritage field. The proposed benchmark, available at http://archdataset.polito.it/, comprises datasets and classification results for better comparisons and insights into the strengths and weaknesses of different machine and deep learning approaches for heritage point cloud semantic segmentation, in addition to promoting a form of crowdsourcing to enrich the already annotated databas

Determination of Elevations for Excavation Operations Using Drone Technologies

Using deep learning technology to rapidly estimate depth information from a single image has been studied in many situations, but it is new in construction site elevation determinations, and challenges are not limited to the lack of datasets. This dissertation presents the research results of utilizing drone ortho-imaging and deep learning to estimate construction site elevations for excavation operations. It provides two flexible options of fast elevation determination including a low-high-ortho-image-pair-based method and a single-frame-ortho-image-based method. The success of this research project advanced the ortho-imaging utilization in construction surveying, strengthened CNNs (convolutional neural networks) to work with large scale images, and contributed dense image pixel matching with different scales.This research project has three major tasks. First, the high-resolution ortho-image and elevation-map datasets were acquired using the low-high ortho-image pair-based 3D-reconstruction method. In detail, a vertical drone path is designed first to capture a 2:1 scale ortho-image pair of a construction site at two different altitudes. Then, to simultaneously match the pixel pairs and determine elevations, the developed pixel matching and virtual elevation algorithm provides the candidate pixel pairs in each virtual plane for matching, and the four-scaling patch feature descriptors are used to match them. Experimental results show that 92% of pixels in the pixel grid were strongly matched, where the accuracy of elevations was within ±5 cm.Second, the acquired high-resolution datasets were applied to train and test the ortho-image encoder and elevation-map decoder, where the max-pooling and up-sampling layers link the ortho-image and elevation-map in the same pixel coordinate. This convolutional encoder-decoder was supplemented with an input ortho-image overlapping disassembling and output elevation-map assembling algorithm to crop the high-resolution datasets into multiple small-patch datasets for model training and testing. Experimental results indicated 128×128-pixel small-patch had the best elevation estimation performance, where 21.22% of the selected points were exactly matched with “ground truth,” 31.21% points were accurately matched within ±5 cm. Finally, vegetation was identified in high-resolution ortho-images and removed from corresponding elevation-maps using the developed CNN-based image classification model and the vegetation removing algorithm. Experimental results concluded that the developed CNN model using 32×32-pixel ortho-image and class-label small-patch datasets had 93% accuracy in identifying objects and localizing objects’ edges

D5.1 SHM digital twin requirements for residential, industrial buildings and bridges

This deliverable presents a report of the needs for structural control on buildings (initial imperfections, deflections at service, stability, rheology) and on bridges (vibrations, modal shapes, deflections, stresses) based on state-of-the-art image-based and sensor-based techniques. To this end, the deliverable identifies and describes strategies that encompass state-of-the-art instrumentation and control for infrastructures (SHM technologies).Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::8 - Treball Decent i Creixement EconòmicObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraPreprin

Digital Recording of Historical Defensive Structures in Mountainous Areas Using Drones: Considerations and Comparisons

Digital recording of historic buildings and sites in mountainous areas could be challenging. The paper considers and discusses the case of historical defensive structures in the Italian Alps, designed and built to be not accessible. Drone images and photogrammetric techniques for 3D modeling play a fundamental role in the digital documentation of fortified constructions with non-contact techniques. This manuscript describes the use of drones for reconstructing the external surfaces of some fortified structures using traditional photogrammetric/SfM solutions and novel methods based on NeRFs. The case of direct orientation based on PPK and traditional GCPs placed on the ground is also discussed, considering the difficulties in placing and measuring control points in such environments