Monitoring of Landslides in Mountainous Regions based on FEM Modelling and Rain Gauge Measurements

Vietnam is a country heavily influenced by climate change. The effect of climate change leads to a series of dangerous phenomena, such as landslides. Landslides occur not only in the mountainous province, but also in Delta provinces, where hundreds of landslides are reported annually in the North-Western provinces of Vietnam. These events have catastrophic impact to the community as well as the economy. In mountainous areas, the conditions for landslides to occur are met frequently, especially after heavy rains or geological activity, causing harm to the community as well as damaging or destroying much needed infrastructure and key transport routes. However, in Vietnam, investment in mountainous regions has been often lower than in urban areas. The meteorology monitoring and forecasting systems are ill equipped and overloaded, so they cannot deliver earlier and more accurate forecasts for complex weather events, unable to provide timely warnings. It can be seen that in countries that landslide often occur, researchers have been trying to develop low cost and efficient landslide detection system. This paper precisely addressed the problems mentioned, by designing and implementing an efficient and reliable Landslide Monitoring and Early Warning (LMnE) system based on the 3G/2G mobile communication system, and a rain gauge at the field site along with a carefully FEM (finite element method) simulation using the rain density information on the server. The system uses advanced processing algorithms combining obtained data at the central station

Development of Wireless Sensor Node for Landslide Detection

Landslides have frequently occurred on natural slopes during periods of intense rainfall. With a rapidly increasing population on or near steep terrain in Korea, landslides have become one of the most significant natural hazards. Thus, it is necessary to protect people from landslides and to minimize the damage of houses, roads and other facilities. To accomplish this goal, many landslide prediction methods have been developed around the world. In this study, a prototype of landslide detection is introduced. This system is based on the wireless sensor network (WSN) that is composed of sensor nodes, gateway, and server system. Sensor nodes comprising sensing and communication part are implemented to detect ground movement. A sensing part is designed to measure inclination angle and acceleration accurately, and a communication part is deployed with Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1) module to transmit the data to the gateway. To verify the feasibility of this landslide prediction system, a series of experimental studies was performed at a small-scale earth slope equipped with an artificial rainfall dropping device. It is found that sensing nodes planted at slope can detect the ground motion when the slope starts to move. It is expected that the prototype of landslide detection can provide early warnings when landslides occurs

Wireless Technology for Monitoring Site-specific Landslide in Vietnam

Climate change has caused an increasing number of landslides, especially in the mountainous provinces of Vietnam, resulting in the destruction of vital transport and other infrastructure. Current monitoring and forecasting systems of the meteorology department cannot deliver accurate and reliable forecasts for weather events and issue timely warnings. This paper describes the development of a simple, low cost, and efficient system for monitoring and warning landslide in real-time. The authors focus on the use of wireless and related technologies in the implementation of a technical solution and some of the problems of the wireless sensor network (WSN) related to power consumption. Promising compressed sensing (CS) based solution for landslide monitoring is discussed and evaluated in the paper

Senslide: a distributed landslide prediction system

We describe the design, implementation, and current status of Senslide, a distributed sensor system aimed at predicting landslides in the hilly regions of western India. Landslides in this region occur during the monsoon rains and cause significant damage to property and lives. Unlike existing solutions that detect landslides in this region, our goal is to predict them before they occur. Also, unlike previous efforts that use a few but expensive sensors to measure slope stability, our solution uses a large number of inexpensive sensor nodes inter-connected by a wireless network. Our system software is designed to tolerate the increased failures such inexpensive components may entail. We have implemented our design in the small on a laboratory testbed of 65 sensor nodes, and present results from that testbed as well as simulation results for larger systems up to 400 sensor nodes. Our results are sufficiently encouraging that we intend to do a field test of the system during the monsoon season in India

Application of an ultra-wide band sensor-free wireless network for ground monitoring

Ground displacement monitoring is one of the most important aspects of early warning systems and risk management strategies when addressing phenomena such as landslides or subsidence. Several types of instrumentation already exist, but those able to provide real-time warnings on multiple time series are typically based on expensive technology, highlighting the need to develop a low-cost, easy to install system suitable for emergency monitoring. Therefore, a wireless network based on ultra-wideband impulse radiofrequency technology has been realized. The novelty of this network consists of its ability to measure the distance between nodes using the same signals used for transmission without the need for an actual measurement sensor. The system was tested by monitoring a mudflow in Central Italy and revealed its suitability as an early warning tool. More research on the integration of future low-cost hardware and and eventual industrialization would provide further improvement to this promising technology.Published1-142V. Struttura e sistema di alimentazione dei vulcani4V. Processi pre-eruttiviJCR Journa

Wireless, automated monitoring for potential landslide hazards

This thesis describes research efforts toward the development of a wireless sensor node, which can be employed in durable and expandable wireless sensor networks for remote monitoring of soil conditions in areas conducive to slope stability failures. Commercially available soil moisture probes and soil tilt sensors were combined with low-power, wireless data transmitters to form a self-configuring network of soil monitoring sensors. The remote locations of many slope stability hazard sites eliminates the possibility of real-time, remote monitoring instrumentation that relies on AC power or land-based communication methods for operation and data transfer. Therefore, various power supply solutions and data transfer methods were explored during this research and are described herein. Additionally, sensor modification and calibrations are discussed. Preliminary evaluations of field durability of the pilot instrumentation were undertaken during this research. Geotechnical engineering instrumentation must be able to withstand extreme weather related conditions. The wireless, solar-powered soil moisture and tilt sensor node was installed on the Texas A&M University campus, allowing evaluation of system reliability and instrument durability. Lastly, potential future research and conclusions arising from this research are presented. This research has shown that commercially available wireless instrumentation can be modified for use in geotechnical applications. The development of an active power management system allows for sensors to be placed in remote locations and operated indefinitely, thus creating another option for monitoring applications in geotechnical and environmental problems

Analysis of dynamic path loss based on the RSSI model for rupture location analysis in underground wireless sensor networks and its implications for Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS)

Sensors deployed in underground tunnels found that radio frequency signals suffer significant signal strength attenuation which can result in considerable variation of link quality on the receiving end. This study analyzes the received signal strength index (RSSI) based on  the development of a theoretical wireless sensor model for  data  collection by  enabling  sensors  to  determine  the  location  from  which  each  data packet is obtained. To improve positioning accuracy, the complex radio wave propagation environment requires the use of a voronoi cell to minimize signal attenuation. A relatively simple calculation is used to predict the intensity and perception range of the received wireless signals to measure the extent of signal reduction in the attenuating rock medium. Simulation results show that RSSI-based localization and wireless network lifetime and throughput measurements are more accurate when the node concept is applied to the self-locating rupture zones than the maximum likelihood estimation method. The proposed minimum energy relay routing technique based on beacon node chain deployment is found to help correct localization errors resulting from interference caused by the underground tunnel environment. The extent of localization and power of the sensor nodes are determined based on the beacon node chain deployment of tunnel wireless sensor networks. The algorithm accounts for the distance and the corresponding RSSI between adjacent beacon nodes to calculate the actual path loss parameter in the tunnel. The proposed model can serve as the theoretical basis for locating ruptures in underground wireless sensor network nodes, thus maximizing the monitoring range of large scale tectonic environments while minimizing equipment cost. We recommend that this model can be field tested through a series of experiments by researchers and engineers working in seismology, telecommunication, and information technology.<br /

Review article: The use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) for natural hazards monitoring and management

The number of scientific studies that consider possible applications of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) for the management of natural hazards effects and the identification of occurred damages are strongly increased in last decade. Nowadays, in the scientific community, the use of these systems is not a novelty, but a deeper analysis of literature shows a lack of codified complex methodologies that can be used not only for scientific experiments but also for normal codified emergency operations. RPAS can acquire on-demand ultra-high resolution images that can be used for the identification of active processes like landslides or volcanic activities but also for the definition of effects of earthquakes, wildfires and floods. In this paper, we present a review of published literature that describes experimental methodologiesdeveloped for the study and monitoring of natural hazards