Automatic Monitoring of Rock-Slope Failures Using Distributed Acoustic
Sensing and Semi-Supervised Learning
Abstract
Effective use of the wealth of information provided by Distributed
Acoustic Sensing (DAS) for mass movement monitoring remains a challenge.
We propose a semi-supervised neural network tailored to screen DAS data
related to a series of rock collapses leading to a major failure of
approximately 1.2 million m3 on 15 June 2023 in Brienz, Eastern
Switzerland. Besides DAS, the dataset from 16 May to 30 June 2023
includes Doppler radar data for ground-truth labeling. The proposed
algorithm is capable of distinguishing between rock-slope failures and
background noise, including road and train traffic, with a detection
precision of over 90%. It identifies hundreds of precursory failures
and shows sustained detection hours before and during the major
collapse. Event size and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are the key
performance dependencies. As a critical part of our algorithm operates
unsupervised, we suggest that it is suitable for general monitoring of
natural hazards.