AGHP Webinar Highlights: Photomonitoring as an Emerging Tool for Geohazard Assessment

The AGHP recently hosted an expert webinar featuring Dr. Paolo Mazzanti, Professor of Remote Sensing and Geological Risks at Sapienza University of Rome, who presented Photomonitoring: A New Tool for Assessing Geohazards. Drawing from more than a decade of research and global case studies, Dr. Mazzanti demonstrated how photomonitoring is rapidly becoming a powerful, flexible, and cost-effective method for detecting ground movement and change using digital images.

Photomonitoring uses repeat images from satellites, drones, fixed cameras, and even smartphones to measure displacement and identify changes across slopes, cliffs, glaciers, and infrastructure corridors. Unlike photogrammetry, which focuses on 3D model reconstruction, photomonitoring excels at detecting sub-pixel displacement and multi-temporal change—even in challenging environmental conditions.

Dr. Mazzanti highlighted real-world applications including:

• Landslide monitoring (Peru, Austria, Italy), capturing both slow deformation and rapid failures
• Earthquake-induced displacement (Ridgecrest, CA) using high-resolution satellite imagery
• Glacier movement in Greenland, revealing meter-per-day ice motion
• Rockfall detection and precursor identification, where micro-failures detected by cameras helped identify unstable blocks
• Coastal cliff and infrastructure corridor monitoring, enabling operators to track small-scale changes that traditional sensors might miss

The presentation demonstrated how advances in optics, consumer cameras, UAV technology, and AI-driven image processing have transformed photomonitoring from a research tool into a practical option for geotechnical and geohazard monitoring. The method shows strong potential for early warning, hazard mapping, and cost-effective site surveillance across a wide range of environments.

Watch the full webinar recording to see detailed examples and visualizations demonstrating how this technology is applied in the field.

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