Search Results (17)

Resource depletion and environmental degradation have resulted from the substantial increase in the use of natural aggregates and construction materials brought on by the growing demand for infrastructure development. Road building using mining waste has become a viable substitute that reduces the buildup of industrial waste while providing ecological and economic advantages. In order to assess the appropriateness of several mining waste materials for use in road building, this study investigates their engineering characteristics. These materials include slag, fly ash, tailings, waste rock, and overburden. To ensure long-term performance in pavement applications, this study evaluates their tensile and compressive strength, resistance to abrasion, durability under freeze–thaw cycles, and chemical stability. This review highlights the potential of mining waste materials as sustainable alternatives in road construction. Waste rock and slag exhibit excellent mechanical strength and durability, making them suitable for high-traffic pavements. Although fly ash and tailings require stabilization, their pozzolanic properties enhance subgrade reinforcement and soil stabilization. Properly processed overburden materials are viable for subbase and embankment applications. By promoting the reuse of mining waste, this study supports landfill reduction, carbon emission mitigation, and circular economy principles. Overall, mining byproducts present a cost-effective and environmentally responsible alternative to conventional construction materials. To support broader implementation, further efforts are needed to improve stabilization techniques, monitor long-term field performance, and establish effective policy frameworks. Full article

Smart construction technology integrates artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, UAVs, and building information modeling to improve productivity and quality in construction. In road embankment earthworks, ground compaction quality is critical for structural stability and maintenance. This study proposes a methodology combining UAV photogrammetry with intelligent compaction quality management systems to evaluate surface flatness and compaction homogeneity in real-time. High-resolution UAV images were used to generate digital elevation models, from which surface roughness was extracted using terrain element analysis and fast Fourier transform. Local terrain changes were interpreted through contour gradient, outline gradient, and tangential gradient curvature analysis. Field tests were conducted at a pilot site using a vibratory roller, followed by four compaction quality assessments: plate load test, dynamic cone penetration test, light falling weight deflectometer, and compaction meter value. UAV-based flatness analysis revealed that, when surface flatness met the standard, a strong correlation was observed, with results from conventional field tests and intelligent compaction data. The proposed method effectively identified poorly compacted zones and spatial inhomogeneity without interrupting construction. These findings demonstrate that UAV-based terrain analysis can serve as a nondestructive real-time monitoring tool and contribute to automated quality control in smart construction environments. Full article

Alcalá de Ebro is located 35 km northwest of the city of Zaragoza, on the right bank of the Ebro River at the outlet of a ravine (Juan Gastón) towards the river, with a catchment area of more than 230 km². Over time, urbanisation and agricultural development have eliminated the last stretch of the drainage channel, and these water inputs have been channelled underground, filtering through the ground. This section of the Ebro Valley rests on a marly tertiary substratum, which promotes dissolution-subbing processes that can lead to sinkholes. The ground tends to sink gradually or suddenly collapse. Many studies have been carried out to understand not only the origin of the phenomenon but also its geometry and the area affected by it in the town of Alcalá de Ebro. In this sense, it has been possible to model an area around the main access road, where numerous collapsing sinkholes have been found, blocking the road and affecting houses. It also affects the embankment that protects the town from the floods of the river Ebro. These studies have provided specific knowledge, enabling us to evaluate and implement underground consolidation measures, which have shown apparent success. Several injection campaigns have been carried out, initially with expansion resins and finally with columnar development, using special low-mobility mortars to fill and consolidate the undermined areas and prevent new subsidence. These technical solutions propose a method of ground treatment that we believe is novel for this type of geological process. The results have been satisfactory, but it is considered necessary to continue monitoring the situation and to extend attention to a wider area to prevent, as far as possible, new problems of subsidence and collapse. In this sense, the objective is to continue the control and monitoring of possible phenomena related to subsidence problems in the affected area and its immediate surroundings, to detect and, if necessary, anticipate subsidence or collapse phenomena that could affect the body of the embankment. Full article

Urban natural parks represent a remarkable concept that evokes the coexistence of human habitation with a wild environment, and the associated interactions between human and natural territories. In this context, urban noise infringes upon the natural soundscape, leading to various consequences for both realms. This study seeks to characterize the impact of anthropic noise levels on biodiversity in the urban natural Văcărești Park (Bucharest, Romania), utilizing on-site measurements and software simulation techniques. The study seeks to develop a method for evaluating integrative strategies to mitigate the impact of traffic noise on wildlife in an urban wild park, without addressing the specific effects of noise on the perception and communication of individual species. By calibrating field measurements with laboratory results, a more reliable data set will be used to identify areas where the biophonic environment is impacted by anthropogenic noise. Since human-generated noise in an urban natural park predominantly originates from road traffic and industrial sites, managing traffic noise and its propagation pathways could substantially improve the park’s soundscape. Additionally, this study will apply software simulations for noise reduction strategies, such as vegetation planting and earthen embankments, to obtain suitable solutions and propose plausible and effective actions to authorities for improving the biophonic environment. This research could also serve as the basis for long-term monitoring, allowing for the assessment of the evolution and impact of implemented measures over time. Full article

Embankment and pavement widening of an existing road is a viable option to cope with increased traffic volume. One of the common challenges in road expansion is the occurrence of differential settlement between the old and the new portions. This article pertains to the field case study of the National Highway-120, where pavement distresses developed in the weak sections of the highway following the operation of traffic within a few months. Field monitoring and geotechnical tests, including the requisite in situ as well as laboratory tests, were conducted on soil specimens from the study area, followed by the performance of a numerical analysis using the two-dimensional finite element software Abaqus CAE 2021 to investigate the weak section of the road. Different techniques such as geogrid reinforcement, installation of cement–fly-ash–gravel (CFG) piles, and lightweight foamed concrete (LWFC) embankment fill were used to analyze the reduction in differential settlement between the old and the widened portions. Among the applied reinforcement techniques, the use of LWFC as embankment fill in the widened portion was determined to be most effective in minimizing the differential settlement in the weak section of the highway. Full article

The Benínar Dam, located in Southeastern Spain, is an earth-fill dam that has experienced filtration issues since its construction in 1985. Despite the installation of various monitoring systems, the data collected are sparse and inadequate for the dam’s lifetime. The present research integrates Multi-Temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (MT-InSAR) and dam modeling to validate the monitoring of this dam, opening the way to enhanced integrated monitoring systems. MT-InSAR was proved to be a reliable and continuous monitoring system for dam deformation, surpassing previously installed systems in terms of precision. MT-InSAR allowed the almost-continuous monitoring of this dam since 1992, combining ERS, Envisat, and Sentinel-1A/B data. Line-of-sight (LOS) velocities of settlement in the crest of the dam evolved from maximums of −6 mm/year (1992–2000), −4 mm/year (2002–2010), and −2 mm/year (2015–2021) with median values of −2.6 and −3.0 mm/year in the first periods (ERS and Envisat) and −1.3 mm/year in the Sentinel 1-A/B period. These results are consistent with the maximum admissible modeled deformation from construction, confirming that settlement was more intense in the dam’s early stages and decreased over time. MT-InSAR was also used to integrate the monitoring of the dam basin, including critical slopes, quarries, and infrastructures, such as roads, tracks, and spillways. This study allows us to conclude that MT-InSAR and dam modeling are important elements for the integrated monitoring systems of embankment dams. This conclusion supports the complete integration of MT-InSAR and 3D modeling into the monitoring systems of embankment dams, as they are a key complement to traditional geotechnical monitoring and can overcome the main limitations of topographical monitoring. Full article

The mud receiving area is an important sand storage area for dredging sea sand reclamation and sand-dumping in the waterway. The sediment accumulation area generated in the process of sand dumping and sand storage has an impact on the surrounding transportation facilities and the normal use of the entire sand storage area. From 6 August 2021 to 9 May 2022, The Sentinel-1A 24-view SLC data covering the sludge area were used to monitor the safety around the seawall road by InSAR technology. Synthetic aperture radar differential interferometry (Differential InSAR, D-InSAR) technology can obtain surface micro deformation information through single-time differential interference processing, mainly used for sudden surface deformation. D-InSAR technology detected five accumulation areas with a thickness of more than 10 cm near the seawall road, earth embankment, and cofferdam, and TS-InSAR (Time series InSAR) technology was used to retrieve the deformation of the surrounding road. The road settlement is a slight settlement distributed between ±5 mm/a. This paper uses the leveling results combined with variance analysis to verify the fusion of different TS-InSAR methods while considering the area of data loss due to causes such as loss of coherence. This paper also considers the common ground continuity and uses the adjacent interpolation and bilinear interpolation algorithm to improve knowledge of the study area seawall road and the surrounding soil embankment deformation data of the road. Compared with the leveling data, the difference between the missing data and the leveling data after interpolation is stable at about 1–7 mm, which increases the risk level of part of the road which needs to be maintained. It provides a reference method to make up for the missing data caused by ground incoherence. Full article

A multidisciplinary approach is often the only way to assess the state of the cultural heritage, thus involving different specialist expertise and techniques. The paper shows the paired use of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and geophysical monitoring (GM) to detect past effects and analyse the actual vibration levels induced by traffic on cultural heritage. The case study is the Villa Farnesina, one of the most important Renaissance buildings commissioned by the banker Agostino Chigi. The Villa contains frescoes attributed to Raphael and other famous 16th century artists, and it is located a few meters from the Lungotevere, which is one of the busiest roads in the historic centre of Rome. Testimonies report the damages caused by the construction of the embankment of the Tiber River, as well as by the traffic in the second half of the 20th century, so much so as to require requalification of the road artery. The TLS survey allows for detecting cracks and deteriorations of the frescoes, although these were subjected to restoration activities over the time, whereas the (GM) allows analysing actual vibrations induced by traffic at the different floors and outside the Villa. Although the measured vibration limits, as velocity peaks in defined frequency ranges, are below the thresholds established by international codes, the importance of the wall paintings and their already-shown susceptibility to damage suggest keeping the building under constant monitoring. Full article

The Xing’anling Mountains are the second largest permafrost region in China. One of the important issues for highways in these regions is how to control the settlement during the operation period to meet the demand of road stability. This paper selects a typical permafrost embankment in the Daxing’anling Mountains permafrost region, presents the finite element models of the embankment, and verifies it using field monitoring data to study the thermal and deformation characteristics within 50 years after construction. Calculation results illustrate that the permafrost under the embankment has degraded significantly during the operation period of the highway and led to serious settlement. To prevent the degradation of permafrost, a series of models with two-phase closed thermosyphons (TPCTs) were established to analyze the cooling effect. The contribution of different factors, including install locations, depth, and shapes of the TPCTs, were assessed on their effects on cooling the permafrost and reducing the embankment settlement. Results show that the TPCTs have an excellent cooling effect on the permafrost embankment. However, as the TPCTs change the temperature distribution of the embankment, they will inevitably cause differential settlement. In order to ensure the cooling effect and reduce the differential settlement of the embankment, it is suggested that L-shaped TPCTs should be adopted in the remedial engineering. Full article

Expressways are often built on soft ground, the foundation of which is not processed adequately during the construction period. Consequently, the traffic safety and embankment stability will be seriously affected due to uneven settlement. The technology of holing the embankment and replacing foamed cement banking (FCB) could control the settlement of an embankment without road closure, thus reduce the impact of construction on normal operation of highways. In this paper, the principle of FCB is described. Additionally, a sedimentation ratio calculation method, through the analysis of the settlement load ratio, is proposed for calculating the roadbed replacement thickness. This paper takes the example of the test section EK0 + 323 on Shen-Jia-Hu expressway in Zhejiang Province and combines with site settlement monitoring data to confirm the effectiveness of the calculation method proposed. Full article

In the absence of systematic structural monitoring to support adequate maintenance standards, many existing infrastructures may reach unacceptable quality levels during their life cycle, resulting in significant damage and even potential failure. The metropolitan area of the Gulf of Salerno (Italy), served by a complex multimodal transport network connecting the port area to the roads and railways surrounding the urban area, represents an important industrial and commercial hub at the local and international scale. This particular scenario, developed in a complex morphological and geological context, has led to the interference and overlapping of the transport network (highway, railway, main and secondary roads) that run through the piedmont area north of the port. Given the relevance of the area, our research aims to highlight the capabilities of the persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) technique, belonging to the group of differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR), to extract space–temporal series of displacements on ground points or artifacts with millimeter accuracy useful to understand ongoing deformation processes. By using archived data from the European Space Agency missions, i.e., ERS1/2 (European remote-sensing satellite) and ENVISAT (environmental satellite), and the most recent data from COSMO-SkyMed constellations, it was possible to collect a 28-year dataset that was used to spatially analyze displacement patterns at a site-specific scale to check the stability of viaducts and embankments, and on a larger scale to understand the activity of the surrounding slopes. Despite the different resolution and subsequently the ground density, the analysis of the different datasets showed a spatiotemporal consistency in the displacement patterns that concerned two subareas showing significant annual velocity trends, one northeast of the city and the second in the port area. The analysis presented in this paper highlights how a complex geologic area, combining slope movements and various fault systems, could be a major concern for the stability of the overlying infrastructure and also the role that a PSI analysis can play in remotely monitoring their behavior over long periods of time. Full article

Highways built on soft clay subgrade are more prone to subsidence due to the geotechnical characteristics of soft clay. Monitoring ground movements in this area is significant for understanding the deformation dynamics and reducing maintenance cost as well. In this paper, small baseline subset synthetic aperture radar interferometry (SBAS-InSAR) technique is exploited to obtain and investigate the time series ground surface deformation after the construction of a road embankment over soft clay settlement. Considering the important effect of temporal deformation models on the final accuracy of estimated deformation, both the linear velocity model and seasonal deformation model are utilized to conduct the comparative investigation of deformation time series. Two highways in Fuoshan, China—G1501 Guangzhou Belt Highway and Lungui Highway—were selected as the test area. Thirteen TerraSAR-X images acquired from October 2014 to November 2015 were analyzed. Comparative study based on two groups of analyses generated from the two models for both highways were conducted. Consequently, several feature points distributed near the two highways were analyzed in detail to understand the temporal evolution of the settlement. In order to evaluate the reliability of our measurements, the residual phase was analyzed to assess the modelling accuracy of the two models. In addition, leveling data were also used to validate the experimental results. Our measurements suggest that the seasonal model is more suitable for the test highways, with an accuracy of ±3 mm with respect to the leveling results. Full article

Monitoring surface movement near highways over soft clay subgrades is fundamental for understanding the dynamics of the settlement process and preventing hazards. Earlier studies have demonstrated the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of using time series radar interferometry (InSAR) technique to measure the ground deformation. However, the accuracy of the advanced differential InSAR techniques, including short baseline subset (SBAS) InSAR, is limited by the temporal deformation models used. In this study, a comparison of four widely used time series deformation models in InSAR, namely Multi Velocity Model (MVM), Permanent Velocity Model (PVM), Seasonal Model (SM) and Cubic Polynomial Model (CPM), was conducted to measure the long-term ground deformation after the construction of road embankment over soft clay subgrade. SBAS-InSAR technique with TerraSAR-X satellite imagery were conducted to generate the time series deformation data over the studied highway. In the experiments, three accuracy indices were applied to show the residual phase, mean temporal coherence and the RMS of high-pass deformation, respectively. In addition, the derived time series deformation maps of the highway based on the four selected models and 17 TerraSAR-X images acquired from June 2014 to November 2015 were compared. The leveling data was also used to validate the experimental results. Our results suggested the Seasonal Model is the most suitable model for the selected study site. Consequently, we analyzed two bridges in detail and three single points distributed near the highway. Compared with the ground leveling deformation measurements and results of other models, SM showed better consistency, with the accuracy of deformation to be ±7 mm. Full article

Middle-sized earth- and rock-filled dams with clay cores continue to settle by approximately 0.5–1.5% of their height for approximately 1–3 years after their construction phase. This paper investigates the use of high-resolution spaceborne Synthetic aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry to monitor this settlement process, with the case of the Gongming dam in China. The varieties of slope foreshortening and stretching in the radar coordinates are attributed to the radar’s local incidence angle and the dam’s slope heading, which are analysed in detail. Focusing on the embankment slope settlement analysis, the equations for calculating foreshortening and the line-of-sight deformation decomposition are derived in detail for the adjustment and data fusing. The scattering characteristics of different materials on the dam surface are analysed, including the grass slope, concrete slope, top road (crest), top wall, step, and ditch. According to the analysis of the precipitation data from a local meteorological station, the coherence losses on the slopes are mainly caused by surface moisture. Both the TerraSAR-X Spotlight (TSX-SL) data and the COSMO-SkyMed Strip Mode (CSK-SM) data are analysed by the stacking method to assess the slopes’ deformations. The TSX-SL data results show the highest rate of settlement as 2 cm/yr on the top of the dam slope, consistent with the clay core shrinking process. The CSK-SM data show a similar trend in the lower part of the dam slope but underestimate the deformation in the upper part of the slope. Full article

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems, sensors, and photogrammetric processing techniques have enabled timely and highly detailed three-dimensional surface reconstructions at a scale that bridges the gap between conventional remote-sensing and field-scale observations. In this work 29 rotary and fixed-wing UAV surveys were conducted during multiple field campaigns, totaling 47 flights and over 14.3 km², to document permafrost thaw subsidence impacts on or close to road infrastructure in the Northwest Territories, Canada. This paper provides four case studies: (1) terrain models and orthomosaic time series revealed the morphology and daily to annual dynamics of thaw-driven mass wasting phenomenon (retrogressive thaw slumps; RTS). Scar zone cut volume estimates ranged between 3.2 × 10³ and 5.9 × 10⁶ m³. The annual net erosion of RTS surveyed ranged between 0.35 × 10³ and 0.39 × 10⁶ m³. The largest RTS produced a long debris tongue with an estimated volume of 1.9 × 10⁶ m³. Downslope transport of scar zone and embankment fill materials was visualized using flow vectors, while thermal imaging revealed areas of exposed ground ice and mobile lobes of saturated, thawed materials. (2) Stratigraphic models were developed for RTS headwalls, delineating ground-ice bodies and stratigraphic unconformities. (3) In poorly drained areas along road embankments, UAV surveys detected seasonal terrain uplift and settlement of up to 0.5 m (>1700 m² in extent) as a result of injection ice development. (4) Time series of terrain models highlighted the thaw-driven evolution of a borrow pit (6.4 × 10⁵ m³ cut volume) constructed in permafrost terrain, whereby fluvial and thaw-driven sediment transfer (1.1 and 3.9 × 10³ m³ a⁻¹ respectively) was observed and annual slope profile reconfiguration was monitored to gain management insights concerning site stabilization. Elevation model vertical accuracies were also assessed as part of the case studies and ranged between 0.02 and 0.13 m Root Mean Square Error. Photogrammetric models processed with Post-processed Kinematic image solutions achieved similar accuracies without ground control points over much larger and complex areas than previously reported. The high resolution of UAV surveys, and the capacity to derive quantitative time series provides novel insights into permafrost processes that are otherwise challenging to study. The timely emergence of these tools bridges field-based research and applied studies with broad-scale remote-sensing approaches during a period when climate change is transforming permafrost environments. Full article