6. Conclusion
This paper describes a method for 3D mapping and characterizing
rock faces from data produced by terrestrial laser scanning
and dense image matching. We tested our data acquisition and
processing methodology on various data sets in order to analyze
the strengths and weaknesses of the different data acquisition
methods and the processing method. The tools presented in this
paper have been combined into a software application called Gaia-
GeoRoc,2 which includes the following features: advanced visualization
of 3D point clouds, semi-automatic extraction of discontinuity
sets through direct segmentation, determination of
persistence and spacing parameters, and creation and exploitation
of solid-images for reliable analyses, etc. Gaia-GeoRoc has been
developed primarily for geologists in charge of rock fall risk management
along the French railway network.