Performance Testing of Optical Flow Time Series Analyses Based on a Fast, High-Alpine Landslide

Doris Hermle,Michele Gaeta,Markus Keuschnig,Michael Krautblatter,Paolo Mazzanti

doi:10.3390/rs14030455

Doris Hermle, Michele Gaeta + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030455

Copy DOI

Abstract

Accurate remote analyses of high-alpine landslides are a key requirement for future alpine safety. In critical stages of alpine landslide evolution, UAS (unmanned aerial system) data can be employed using image registration to derive ground motion with high temporal and spatial resolution. However, classical area-based algorithms suffer from dynamic surface alterations and their limited velocity range restricts detection, resulting in noise from decorrelation and hindering their application to fast landslides. Here, to reduce these limitations we apply for the first time the optical flow-time series to landslides for the analysis of one of the fastest and most critical debris flow source zones in Austria. The benchmark site Sattelkar (2130–2730 m asl), a steep, high-alpine cirque in Austria, is highly sensitive to rainfall and melt-water events, which led to a 70,000 m³ debris slide event after two days of heavy precipitation in summer 2014. We use a UAS data set of five acquisitions (2018–2020) over a temporal range of three years with 0.16 m spatial resolution. Our new methodology is to employ optical flow for landslide monitoring, which, along with phase correlation, is incorporated into the software IRIS. For performance testing, we compared the two algorithms by applying them to the UAS image stacks to calculate time-series displacement curves and ground motion maps. These maps allow the exact identification of compartments of the complex landslide body and reveal different displacement patterns, with displacement curves reflecting an increased acceleration. Visually traceable boulders in the UAS orthophotos provide independent validation of the methodology applied. Here, we demonstrate that UAS optical flow time series analysis generates a better signal extraction, and thus less noise and a wider observable velocity range—highlighting its applicability for the acceleration of a fast, high-alpine landslide.

Highlights

Landslides have a causal link to climate change, pose an increasing risk in magnitude and frequency for people and their livestock [1]
This section outlines the results of the studies of the total displacement for the single and the multimaster analysis; for the latter only we present displacement curves
phase correlation (PC) returned a smaller distribution around zero, with lower values of ±0.2 m for NS components (a) and ±0.3 m for EW components (b)

Summary

Introduction

Landslides have a causal link to climate change, pose an increasing risk in magnitude and frequency for people and their livestock [1]. Investigations of high-alpine landslide areas are often difficult and dangerous; remote sensing techniques have to be employed to generate sufficient spatial and temporal coverage. Optical space and airborne remote sensing offers two key advantages: (i) Optical images with their close-to-nadir viewing geometry, with the image plane orthogonal to the sensor’s line-of-sight (LOS), allow scientists to directly monitor and interpret geomorphic processes of steep slopes [2] without using derived products. (ii) Optical remote sensing for the calculation of ground motion by image registration is often the only feasible way to quantify horizontal surface displacements of both shallow and complex slope instabilities [3], where geomorphic processes are moving at rates too high for radar remote sensing techniques [4]. Known as image matching and imag lation, geometrically aligns images and allows tracking for accurate 2D m

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion