ISC7

Event detection system for monitoring the cliff retreat and undermining of Castellfollit de la Roca village

  • Navarro, Maria (Worldsensing)
  • Janeras, Marc (ICGC)
  • Carbonell, Txus (ICGC)
  • Pérez, Juan (Worldsensing)

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Castellfollit de la Roca village (Catalonia, NE Spain) stands on top of a basaltic cliff affected by rockfalls that are causing the retreat of the slope and the risk of undermining the buildings. To improve both security and preservation of the old town, local and regional government authorities have ordered the ICGC (Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya) to perform surveillance and monitoring works. So far, remote sensing techniques have been applied combining semestral surveys with TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanner) (since 2018) and daily terrestrial photogrammetry (since 2021). Thanks to these works, carried out in collaboration with universities and research centers [1,2], centimetric precursory movements of toppling in basaltic columns have been detected, and unnoticed rockfalls of tiny volume as well [3]. However, rockfalls of remarkable magnitude caused by mechanisms other than overturns have occurred at the foundation level of some houses, without any precursor movement detected by remote sensing techniques [4]. In order to gather information from these events, a priority sector has been instrumented with a geotechnical network of crackmeters, tiltmeters and thermistors to monitor the thermo-mechanical behavior of the rock mass. Readings from the sensors have been automated through the Loadsensing system, designed by Worldsensing. The system enables for continuous and real time monitoring through data loggers that communicate with a receptor element using low-power and long-range radio. Data received by the gateway is transmitted automatically to the ICGC server for its analysis and interpretation. Tiltmeters installed on the cliff measure three-axis inclination in dynamic mode [5]. This system, called EDS (Event Detection Solution), enables the configuration of thresholds for each axis. Each reading is compared to the established threshold and, in case that it is exceeded or surpassed, the system sends an alert message in real time. To receive reliable alerts for risk management, suitable thresholds have to be defined, based on the knowledge of the studied phenomena at the particular scenario. In this paper we will present the system set up and the threshold analysis through the observation of the cliff behavior on the daily and seasonal cycles registered during the first year.