A Novel Application of Close-range Photogrammetry for Earth Retaining Wall and Slope Stability Assessment

Abstract In recent years, with the advances in the construction sector monitoring techniques have been extended to be used in geotechnical assets such as slopes, embankments, and retaining walls. The current study analyzed the slope stability problem near the Kyrenia Castel which belongs to the 7thcentury and is located in the northern part of Cyprus. In the current case, the landslide and RC/Stone walls built for rehabilitation purposes were monitored for a period of 2 years. As a conventional analysis method, the Finite Element Method (FEM) was adapted to back analyze the current condition of the site. On the other hand, close-range photogrammetry (CRP) was adopted by using an unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) to obtain the required photographs that are necessary to build the dense cloud model and detect the changes in geotechnical assets. The results show that the CRP method confirms the numerical analyses. As a result, this approach can be used vastly in various civil engineering applications, especially geotechnical engineering applications, as it is proven to be fast, cost-effective, and non-destructive when compared to conventional methods.