MONITOR Land Surveying and Civil Engineering MONITORing Proposal Number GNSS/PRP/MONITOR/05-04 Coordinator: University of Trieste - GEONETLAB

Italy has a history of coping with natural disasters, such as earthquakes, landslides, flooding and volcanic activity. These events, which have led to extensive losses of life and property, are not limited to Italy, but are also experienced in many other countries throughout the world. For nearly 50 years, geodesists and surveyors developed deformation monitoring techniques based on traditional land surveying equipment, such as theodolites and levels. From the 1980’s onwards, these traditional techniques were first supplemented and later completely replaced by satellite positioning technology based on GPS. GPS allows continuous quasi-realtime monitoring of the small movements of points. At first, the time related measurement data was collected from the different GPS sensors, placed at critical locations on the structure, and was post-processed. Later, these measurements were broadcast to the control centre using dedicated links, such as short range radio, fibre optic cable and the internet, for quasi-realtime collection, processing and monitoring. However, on its own GPS suffers from a number of limitations which affect the coverage, accuracy and reliability of the satellite measurements. The eventual emergence of Galileo and its proposed interoperability with GPS, and the use of EGNOS, will contribute substantially to the quantity and quality of the satellite measurements thereby improving the quality of the deformation monitoring process. The combined capabilities of the Consortium covers all aspects of high precision monitoring of engineering structural deformations, namely current satellite positioning techniques, engineering applications of GNSS and the potential of the Galileo system. The Consortium partners widely experimented the use of GPS in land surveying for general and thematic mapping, including road mapping, in landslide and subsidence monitoring, in car navigation and real time GIS, in vibration spectrum of buildings and other applications. A GPS receiver manufacturer is present in the Consortium so allowing the design of special units for difficult environments The Statement of Work identifies a number of major requirements. In the specific context of the MONITOR project, on the use of GNSS for Civil Engineering and Surveying applications, these requirements are met as follows. -Pilot projects aimed at demonstrating the use of GNSS for Special Structure Monitoring, Environmental Monitoring, Land Thematic Mapping and Civil Engineering. -Pilot projects will demonstrate not only current satellite positioning technologies, but also, through simulation the potential added benefits of EGNOS and Galileo measurements. -Design and realisation of an Operational centre as a preliminary common platform for the Pilot Projects and also a benchmark for the study of possible service with added values -This will be followed by an analysis of the barriers to the wider penetration of the GNSS technology within the targeted markets, and the proposed enabling measures to be taken to overcome these barriers. These include not only technological advances, but also a strategy for market penetration and regulatory frameworks, including standards and certification. -Last, but not least, the project will develop and deliver a full awareness and training programme.