AEC TECH NEWS: Rheticus open satellite data monitors infrastructure and ground stability hazards

Bari, Italy — Earth observation (EO) and not-EO free and open data (e.g., the U.S. Landsat satellite and NOAA data, the European Copernicus Sentinel satellites data and INSPIRE data) can today support operational activities and decision making in several application fields such as urban dynamics, landslides, terrain displacements, wildfires, and water quality. Satellites, in particular, give a great opportunity to download and use fresh and historic information about our world. An opportunity for anyone to use these huge data and even to develop solutions able to provide updated and dynamic information in a very short time.

Open satellite data is fundamental, today, for monitoring infrastructure stability. They can help us detect millimetric movements of the ground and of the infrastructures (e.g. buildings, railways, roads), but they give also information on anthropic changes and infrastructural dynamics over the area where the infrastructure is established. The use of satellite data is also alternative to expensive field campaigns.

An example of using these data to provide continuous information on ground and infrastructures stability is RheticusDisplacement. This application was listed in June among finalists of the European EO product of the Year by the EARSC Association and was presented at Hexagon Live 2016 event in Anheim, Calif.

RheticusDisplacement is a geoinformation service designed for the monitoring of ground surface movements, aimed at monitoring areas subject to landslides and subsidence, and the stability of infrastructures.

The mapping of the earth's surface movement speed and acceleration is made through the monitoring of points on the ground with high stability called Persistent Scatterers (PS). The PS is produced through the processing of Sentinel-1 images of the European Copernicus program or COSMO-SkyMed data.

The service is targeted to: Infrastructures and works managers and builders; Public Administration; Planners & professionals in the territory. The service is already used by main European infrastructures and transportation engineering companies.

Planetek Italia, a European company operating in EO sector since 1994, developed a new platform able to automatically ingest and process open satellite data and to deliver information for several application fields.

RheticusDisplacement products and services are available on the Rheticus web platform. Here you can find also RheticusMarine, a set of information services which helps national and local organization, together with private organizations, monitoring the quality of coastal marine waters and monitoring of marine resources (aquaculture, plants, etc.).

All services, with some real sample data, are accessible at www.rheticus.eu.