ing 2008 
Application of 3D laser scanner for monitoring of landslide hazards 
Lichun SUI\ Xue WANG a , Dan ZHAO a , Jia QU a 
a College of Geology Engineering and Geomatrics, Chang’an University, Yanta Road No. 126,710054 Xi’an, China 
Lichun_sui@yahoo.com.cn 
KEY WORDS: ILRIS-3D laser scanner, Landslide, Point cloud, Data processing, Monitoring 
ABSTRACT: 
Landslide hazards are one of the major natural hazards. It is difficult not only to get the integrated and accurate landslide datum but 
also to monitor and predict the landslide. This paper introduces a ground-based laser scanner application for the landslides 
monitoring and its experiment in Jingyang, Shaanxi province. The point cloud gained in the test region is processed by existing 
software, and the result of experiment shows that ground-based laser scanner is effective in monitoring of landslide hazards. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Landslide is considered to be a major geologic hazard because 
it is widely occurred in all over the world, and causes great 
damages each year. Especially in the residential area, many 
people are threatened by landslide each year. Landslide and 
other objects monitoring is one of the study targets in geology, 
hydrology and geodetic survey. A lot of experiments are 
applied to monitor landslide in dangerous places. In surveying 
technique, D-InSAR technique can be used to monitor landslide 
in a large region. The accuracy of the technique can reach 
millimeter level in land subsidence monitoring of urban region. 
D-InSAR technique has been applied to landslide monitoring in 
Italy, Germany, Austria and so on. Especially in Alpine 
landslide monitoring, it has got a satisfying result. 
For the landslide monitoring of the local region, some other 
methods are usually used. For example, the monitoring by setup 
a geodetic deformation monitoring network for side-angle 
measurement, and by GPS deformation monitoring. These 
methods are already mature, but only monitor discrete points. 
They can’t offer the integrity of the surface information 
because lack of enough points. Also they need a great deal of 
time and high expenditure. Besides, local region can monitored 
by the close-range photogrammetry, but the accuracy of this 
technique is lower and it is restricted by the weather condition. 
In recent years, ground-based laser scanner is applied more and 
more widely for landslide monitoring. It can easily acquire 
large amounts of point cloud in a short time and offer high 
density and accurate information. It collects data in complex 
circumstance, scans a series of large, complicated and irregular 
region quickly, so it can get 3D datum and analyze the status of 
landslide region by software. 3D laser scanning is a new 
method of landslide monitoring. It has won a well application in 
Californian coast slope deformation monitoring of America 
(Collins B.D., 2004) and Niigata-ken Chuetse earthquake 
disaster evaluation of Japan in Oct.2004 (Kayen, Robert,2005). 
A researcher from Toronto University in Canada has contrasted 
the result by using the total station instrument and ILRIS-3D 
laser scanner of Optech Company respectively. It shows that 
the accuracy of single-point positioning is at the same level 
between two survey methods. In Hoengscong Dam monitoring 
of Corea and Afternoon Creek rock slide monitoring of 
Washington, America, The accuracy reaches 3-7 mm by ILRIS- 
3D laser scanner (Strouth,2006). 
In this paper, there is an example of landslide in Jingyang, 
Shannxi province. The data is collected by Optech ILRIS-3D 
laser scanner. The data post processing is done by Polyworks 
software and Terrascan software. From the analysis above, 
there is a result of simulative monitoring. The experiment result 
proves that it is an effective method in landslide monitoring by 
ground-based 3D laser scanning. 
2. EXPERIMENT 
2.1. Instrument 
In this test, the instrument is ILRIS-3D laser scanner. It is a 
compact, fully portable and highly integrated package with 
digital image capture and sophisticated software tools, ideal for 
the commercial surveying, engineering, mining and industrial 
market (http ://www. optech.on.ca/ilrisfeatbens.htm). Its size is 
similar to a total station. ILRIS-3D has a 6 megapixel digital 
camera and large screen LCD monitor. It also has high 
resolution, accuracy and dynamic survey range from 3m to 
1500m; the accuracy can reach the level of 3 mm. The basic 
parameters are shows in Table 1. 
Dynamic survey 
range 
3m-1500m 
Accuracy 
Distance: +/- 7mm 
Angle: +/-170 micro-radian 
Point resolution 
Highest 26 micro-radian 
Sampling rate 
2000 point/s 
Export 
Include XYZ point cloud, density, 
digital image and data explanation. 
Operation interface 
Digital camera: 4 megapixel 
V iewfmder: 17 cm VGA 
Controller: Paimtop PDA 
Recommended 
software 
Polywork software of InnovMetric 
company 
Size 
312x 312x205mm 
Circumstance 
temperature 
0-40 degree/-20-50 degree 
(placement) 
Eye safe 
Class I laser rating: completely eye 
safe 
Table 1: Basic parameters of ILRIS-3D 
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