Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A new tool for landslide risk assessment

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), or drones, in landslide risk assessments is ‘taking off’. This has been made possible by rapid advances in UAV technology in recent years that have seen the emergence of affordable and sophisticated UAV with payloads capable of carrying high resolution cameras and other remote sensing equipment. UAV provide a quick, safe and potentially superior means of inspecting large scale, remote and difficult to access landforms with significant cost benefits compared to traditional inspection methods. UAV can be mobilised quickly, require minimal human resources and facilitate rapid on-site assessment and hazard identification. Inaccessible and hazardous terrain can be inspected in real-time allowing assessment methodology to be adapted in the field. In addition, data collected by UAV can be used to produce high resolution 3D models in ‘client-friendly’ visualisation formats as well as accurate ground surface surveys. However, if we embrace the use of UAV, what role is left for geotechnical professionals to play? This paper attempts to answer this question and provides recent case studies to demonstrate the application of UAV technology in landslide risk assessment.