Abstract:

The infrastructure reconstruction of 20 new towns for the Three Gorges Project migration caused a large number of high cutting slopes（HCS）, in which about 90 percentage of the HCS are unstable and thus lead to a serious threaten to the transportation and the people’s lives and properties. The integration and three-dimension visualization of digital mapping camera (DMC) images, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data, geological maps is carried out for the interpretation and features extraction of the HCS from Zigui to Badong section. 177  high cutting slopes with 25.165 km in length in this area are interpreted and the location, size, slope, the slope structure and protective measures of the HCS in this area are obtained by the interpretation and field investigation. Investigation and analysis shows that high cutting slopes mainly distribute in the immigrant towns and the major highways, and its size and stability is controlled by lithology, slope and slope structure; the stability of the HCS in carbonate rocks, crystalline rocks and clastic rocks decreased gradually, and Xiangxi to Xietan section within clastic rock should be have a priority to control and protect because of the low stability of the high cutting slopes in this area.

Key words: multi-source data, three dimensional visualization, high cutting slopes, interpretation, the Three Gorges reservoir area, geographic information systems