Abstract:
As one of the fundamental structural units in structural geology, faults and their damage zones have important research and engineering significance in revealing the evolution laws of regional structures, exploring the evolution characteristics of fault structures, indicating the migration paths of underground fluids, and evaluating the stability of major engineering rock masses. However, traditional research methods often rely on manual recording to obtain information on fracture and surrounding joint structures, which has problems such as low efficiency and susceptibility to complex terrain limitations. The emerging unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveying technology in recent years has effectively compensated for the shortcomings of traditional methods. This method integrates data acquisition, terrain mapping, and dynamic monitoring, and generates high-resolution digital models and images that can effectively reduce field workload, more intuitively display terrain features, and more conveniently extract structural information. In order to better extend this method to the field of structural geology, especially in the study of faults and damage zones. Based on extensive literature research, we introduced the basic principles of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aerial survey technology, the definition of fault damage zones, and associated structures. We also listed the commonly used methods for identifying the scope and structural characteristics of fault damage zones, as well as application cases. And summarized some application scenarios of unmanned aerial vehicle aerial survey technology in fault damage zones. Overall, there are still unresolved issues in the front-end (construction information pickup) and back-end (construction information interpretation) of unmanned aerial vehicle aerial survey technology. However, due to its convenience, intuitiveness, and other advantages, this method still has broad application space in the future.