Virtual and Mixed Reality Geodatabases: The Importance of Integrating Engineering Geological Field Techniques with New Methods for Site Characterization

With continuous advances in computational technology, remote sensing (RS) techniques can acquire increasingly larger and more comprehensive datasets in engineering investigations. The need to efficiently store, model, interpret and most importantly, communicate information is a challenging task. Over the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the use of Virtual (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) techniques in a wide range of disciplines, however, the applications within engineering and geoscience remain limited. Notwithstanding these advances, there is a continued need to develop new and effective VR/MR approaches through virtual geodatabases. We demonstrate the application of VR/MR in geotechnical data collection, analysis, and communication by integrating field and RS data collected from different project sites within virtual geodatabases. An innovative workflow using VR/MR integrated with field, RS, GIS, and numerical modelling is presented for a wide range of engineering projects including natural hazards, tunnelling, mining, oil and gas, pipeline integrity, surface, and underground engineering investigations. An innovative engineering geological VR/MR geodatabase approach to investigate the 2014 Jure landslide in Nepal is demonstrated. Furthermore, this paper not only demonstrates the VR/MR capability of effectively storing, interpreting, and communicating large quantities of 3D data, but also presents innovative VR/MR methods to conduct and compare discontinuity mapping on rock slopes, terrain mapping, tunneling, mining/geotechnical applications, and recently developed 3D holographic rockfall modelling. This paper demonstrates how a VR/MR approach has the potential to lead to a step-change in how future engineering investigations are conducted, communicated, and can be used for a wide range of engineering/geoscience projects.