Monitoring and warning of landslides and debris flows using an optical fiber sensor technology

Landslides and debris flows are typical geo-hazards which occur in hilly or mountainous regions. Debris flows may result from landslides. Geotechnical instrumentation plays an important role in monitoring and warning of landslides and resulted debris flows. Traditional technologies for monitoring landslides and debris flows have certain limitations. The new optical fiber sensors presented in this paper can overcome those limitations. This paper presents two new optical fiber sensor systems: one is the Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)-based in-place inclinometer for monitoring landslides and the other is the FBG-based column-net system for monitoring debris flows. This paper presents the calibration results of FBG-based in-place inclinometers in laboratory. It is found that the calibration results are in good agreement with theoretical results. Both the FBG-based in-place inclinometers and the FBG-based column-net system have been installed at a site in Weijiagou valley, Beichuan County, Sichuan Province of China. Some preliminary results have been obtained and reported in the paper. The advantages of the FBG monitoring systems and their potential applications are also presented.