Working with business
Revolutionising landslide detection and early warning
- Slope ALARMS detect impending landslides and provide early warnings
Award-winning applied research is reducing the devastating impact of landslides world-wide.
Slope ALARMS – developed and patented at Loughborough University in partnership with the British Geological Survey – can detect impending landslides and provide early warnings.
Based on research conducted at Loughborough over 15 years – which quantified the link between acoustic emission (AE) and slope displacement rates – the novel technology is low-cost yet more sensitive and reliable than existing systems.
The battery-powered sensor – attached to a steel tube which is imbedded in the unstable slope – measures AE as the slope deforms and provides updates and warnings via text message. Its practical design means that it is easy to install and can be used across a wide range of geological environments.
Interest in Slope ALARMS is growing rapidly, with organisations across the globe keen to adopt the system as part of their landslide instrumentation.
Impact
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Award-Winning Research
Slope ALARMS won the Civil Engineering category of The Engineer magazine’s Technology and Innovation Awards 2011, and the Commercialisation category of the University’s Enterprise Awards 2010
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Sites worldwide
There are now twelve Slope ALARMS sensors operating at sites across the UK, Europe and Canada, with new sites under development
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Diverse suitability
Slope ALARMS is improving safety across a diverse range of situations, from UK and alpine railways, to highways and settlements on coastal slopes.
