The article describes the first results of a research project aimed to digitalize the monitoring activities of natural rock masses. The project started with a geotechnical remote analysis on the high-definition 3D point cloud detected by a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS), and with the identification of principal discontinuities elements through 3D manual and automatic analysis of the fractures. The results of these survey campaigns have allowed identifying geometrical information of the blocks at risk, to perform a detachment risk assessment and an evaluation of the potential falling trajectories through the lumped mass methodology. The geotechnical monitoring of the rocky mass has seen the combined use of two techniques: the use of a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) combined with Imaging Matching algorithms; and the implementation of an innovative smart warning system for detachment phenomenon realized by Maccaferri s.p.a., applied to rockfall barriers and drapery mesh, able to provide real-time status notifications and warning alerts. According to the first data analyses, both the proposed techniques can provide excellent monitoring of the rocky slopes, with low costs. The methodological approach proposed perfectly integrates with smart management of excavation sites and the infrastructure and can guarantee an extremely high level of health and safety.
Ornamental stone quarries are, in many cases, built along mountain slopes, which exposes the quarry site, and consequently the operators, to potential phenomena of detachment of the most altered and superficial portions of the rock mass.
For these reasons it is advisable that, in quarries where such circumstances occur, the stability problems of the rocky slopes are addressed and solved, using both the appropriate calculation and monitoring approaches and the most suitable technical tools for carrying out the interventions, whether they are active (preventive) or passive (protective).
The note, referring to some practical examples, identifies the phenomena of instability due to falling rocks and analyses the intervention and monitoring techniques for the prevention and protection of quarry sites.