Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.

Sec. Geohazards and Georisks

This article is part of the Research TopicFailure Analysis and Risk Assessment of Natural Disasters Through Machine Learning and Numerical Simulation, volume VView all 7 articles

Intelligent joint mapping and hazard areas of open-pit slopes under complex geology: The Yanshan iron mine case

Provisionally accepted
Yanze  LuYanze Lu1Tianhong  YangTianhong Yang2Youbang  LaiYoubang Lai1*Jinduo  LiJinduo Li2*Zhipeng  LiZhipeng Li1Huishi  YeHuishi Ye1Peng  LiangPeng Liang3Zirui  ZhangZirui Zhang2Wenxue  DengWenxue Deng2
  • 1Hebei Iron & Steel Group Co.Ltd, Tangshan, China
  • 2Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
  • 3Collaborative Innovation Center of Green Development and Ecological Restoration of Mineral Re-sources, tangshan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Rapid identification of hazardous areas is crucial for reducing landslide risks. To address this, this study proposes a hazard assessment method based on UAV oblique photography and automated structural surface identification, applied to hazard identification and stability analysis in the Yanshan open-pit iron mine. A millimeter-accuracy 3D surface model was constructed using UAV low-altitude slope-following flights. Geometric features of structural surfaces were extracted using a density-based clustering algorithm, and 3D stability analysis was conducted with Rocslope software to precisely identify high-risk areas and their failure modes. The analysis revealed that the joint density and connectivity in the northeastern and northern slopes are significantly higher than in the eastern slope, with wedge failure as the predominant failure mode in slopes, and most hazardous blocks having a thickness of less than 3 meters. Compared with natural conditions, the proportion of hazardous areas increased from 5.4% to 7.3% under saturated and blasting conditions, further demonstrating the significant impact of water and blasting on slope stability. Meanwhile, the shotcrete reinforcement measures were adopted for hazardous areas in advance, improving the slope stability. The proposed methodology improves the precision and efficiency of slope hazard identification, providing reliable data and technical support for landslide risk assessment.

Keywords: Hazardous areas identification, Landslides, Open-pit mines, slope stability, UAV oblique photography

Received: 20 Oct 2025; Accepted: 11 Dec 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Lu, Yang, Lai, Li, Li, Ye, Liang, Zhang and Deng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Youbang Lai
Jinduo Li

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.