Alex Cuellar Díaz is a Geotechnical Civil Engineer in Colombia who researches landslide vulnerability for infrastructure projects. By performing geospatial analysis in Google Earth, Alex conducted virtual assessments to de-risk hazards across 45 km² of land. Combining Google Earth's imagery, professional-grade data, and no-code tools to identify high-risk zones, Alex was able to recommend targeted fieldwork, save months of work, and protect investments from potential damages.
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Smarter field work |
Time saved |
Project de-risked |
|---|---|---|
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93% of potential sites eliminated with remote analysis |
Months of field research completed remotely |
Asset value protected from landslide damage |
The Challenge: Pinpointing high-risk zones in vast terrain
Across 45 km² of rugged landscape, identifying potential landslide hazards was like searching for a needle in a haystack. After three landslides along critical access roads suspended operations, Alex needed a fast, reliable way to pinpoint high-risk zones across the vast area before deploying field teams.
To protect critical infrastructure, we had to assess landslide risks quickly. We had to find high-risk zones remotely to do it quickly and safely.Geotechnical Civil Engineer
The Solution: Remote site analysis
Google Earth provided Alex with an easy-to-use visualization and analysis platform. His goal was to identify areas exposed to landslide risk and assess potential impacts on safety, property, and business operations. By visualizing these risks remotely, he could map hazards, prioritize vulnerable slopes, and direct targeted field actions.
Professional data and tools
To address the challenge, Alex needed a complete set of tools to analyze the terrain. First, he imported custom data layers from public and private sources into his map project, bringing together essential project boundaries and regional geological records. Next, he evaluated the terrain using land cover layers, elevation contours, and slope analysis to identify structural vulnerabilities across the landscape.
Alex combined data layers for elevation contour, slope, land cover, and imported data to his Google Earth project.
Real-world context
The final step of Alex’s assessment brought real-world context to the data. Using historical imagery, Alex conducted visual inspections over time to detect environmental changes and pinpoint risk indicators. This workflow allowed him to score locations and build a shareable hazard map. With these insights, he narrowed his team’s fieldwork focus to specific high-risk zones covering just 7% of the total area, saving substantial time and field operation costs.
By combining Google Earth’s imagery, data, and tools with my own data, we could select our sites strategically and target field visits strictly to where they were needed.
Alex detected areas showing erosion using Google Earth’s historical imagery.
The Impact: Strategic field research and de-risked infrastructure
Geospatial analysis in Google Earth was instrumental in de-risking the project and protecting the client's capital investment from future operational disruptions. Ultimately, Alex delivered a clear, cloud-based map project that communicated risk, opportunity, and next steps in a single shared view. He gave stakeholders the confidence to move forward, backed by data-driven site selection.
Google Earth allowed me to analyze my site, understand terrain, and tell a clear story with my findings.
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