A Method for Automatic Assessment of Rockfall Susceptibility Based on High-Resolution Point Clouds.

Typical rockfall analysis requires detailed discontinuity measurements; however, the use of conventional contact approaches can be challenging on cliffs. In this study, a novel automatic method for rockfall susceptibility is proposed to identify potential rockfall areas by topographic information on steep slopes generated by a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS). The rockfall susceptibility can be determined using the proposed method via the following four steps: first, automatic spatial information of discontinuity extraction based on high-resolution point clouds; second, defining the spatial intersection areas of discontinuities with different statistical properties; third, evaluating the contribution of discontinuity intersections to rockfalls and estimating potential rockfall hazardous blocks based on kinematic analysis; and finally, mapping the rockfall susceptibility through the overall index. Our method can be used to expedite discontinuity measurements from high-resolution point clouds, optimize the processing of discontinuity statistics for the analysis of rockfall source areas, and permit users to visualize and intuitively access potential rockfall areas to facilitate effective measures to control rockfall hazards or implementation. The method was implemented in MATLAB for excavated slopes, and the credibility of our computational results was verified by visual inspection and a comparison to the source locations of rock detachment events. The results showed that the areas in case 1 with a high susceptibility were in line with the geometry of the discontinuities, and the predicted potential failure areas in case 2 were consistent with the rockfall events. This automated process allows rapid acquisition of potential rockfall areas over a broad-scale survey area, which helps to reduce the time of investigation and the uncertainty in further treatment. Highlights: An automatic mapping method based on high-resolution point clouds was utilized for rockfall susceptibility evaluation. An evaluation method was proposed for potential hazardous rockfall blocks based on discontinuity extraction and kinematic analysis. The method was implemented in MATLAB and validated by actual rockfall events on an excavated slope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]