2014-06-10

This proposal develops a novel approach for the management of geotechnical assets (e.g. retaining walls, unstable slopes, rockfall sites, cut slopes, and embankments) using commercially available remote sensing system. The proposed approach will provide a cost-effective solution for the transportation agencies to measure the state of the geotechnical assets using remote sensing, relate that data to obtain information on the condition of the asset, and further utilize this information for strategic investment to achieve life-cycle performance goals of the asset. The current management practices for geotechnical assets along the transportation environment have been mostly restoring the asset after the failure, instead of identifying and remediating hazardous conditions before their occurrence. The reason for lacking a proactive geotechnical asset management system is that the geotechnical assets are extensive and assessing their condition using traditional site inspections by trained engineers is laborious and costly. However, the recent advancements in commercial remote sensing (InSAR, LiDAR, and optical) provide opportunities to obtain precise measurements of displacements and these displacement measurements could provide a valuable alternative to the traditional laborious site inspections to determine the condition of the geotechnical asset. Further, these measurements and asset conditions can be integrated into a decision support system for assisting asset managers to make decisions on short and long-term investments. The project team will solicit input from state Department of Transportations (DOTs) and other transportation agencies to define the requirements for the remote sensing based geotechnical asset management system.

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