RT Journal Article T1 Comparing Mobile and Aerial Laser Scanner point cloud data sets for automating the detection and delimitation procedure of safety-critical near-road slopes A1 Núñez Seoane, Antón A1 Martínez Sánchez, Joaquín A1 Rúa Fernández, Erik A1 Arias Sánchez, Pedro K1 3305.29 Construcción de Carreteras K1 3305.31 Mecánica del Suelo (Construcción) AB An inappropriately maintained road cut-slope is likely to fail, resulting in landslides or falling rocks that compromise road safety. Thus, road managers need to know the location of dangerous slopes along the road in order to prevent these events from happening. In this article, we compare two different approaches for conducting the digitization of the road environment and the automatic detection and delimitation of road slopes: Mobile Laser Scanners (MLS) and Aerial Laser Scanners (ALS). The point clouds obtained using the first kind of devices are dense, rich in detail and generated from a ground perspective; the second type of scanners produce less dense clouds from a zenithal perspective. We explore what is the effect of the point cloud density and scanner point of view over the slope detection procedure. Two road segments from the Spanish A55 and A52 highways were used as study zones, and a total of 28.61 km were analyzed. Better detection and delimitation results were achieved when using the ALS data and its corresponding algorithm. It was observed that the higher point density and detail of the MLS clouds were not an advantage for the slope detection task, and that measuring the road from a terrestrial perspective affected in a negative way during the detection process: the crest of the slopes often remained unmeasured, hidden behind vegetation or man-made elements, thus resulting in the slopes not being complete in the MLS clouds. Meanwhile, the whole slope structure is scanned when the scene is measured from an aerial perspective, henceforth obtaining better detection rates despite the relatively low resolution. The findings of this study provide valuable information in the field of road asset management, and help road managers make decisions when choosing what technology to use for the data gathering process. PB Measurement SN 02632241 YR 2024 FD 2024-01 LK http://hdl.handle.net/11093/5510 UL http://hdl.handle.net/11093/5510 LA eng NO Measurement, 224, 113919 (2024) NO Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PID2022-140662OB-I00 DS Investigo RD 18-sep-2024