GeoWSN

GNSS-basiertes Frühwarnsystems zur Beurteilung der Gefährdung kritischer Infrastruktur durch Hangrutschungen

Aims

Development of a GNSS-based early warning system for landslide risk assessment

Brief Description

Climate change leads to an increasing number of mass movement events of varying dimensions within Alpine regions. Various phenomena such as landslides or falling rocks represent a growing risk to the population as well to the infrastructure, particularly within mountainous regions of Austria. The need for a sophisticated landslide forecasting, monitoring and alerting system is evident. Beside high requirements on the accuracy, the system should also be affordable.

The goal of the GeoWSN project is to analyse if a comprehensive landslide monitoring system for Alpine regions within Austria can be realised by means of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Furthermore, it is analysed if low-cost GPS-L1 receivers are suitable for a monitoring system and if Precise Point Positioning (PPP) can be an alternative to relative positioning techniques.

Within the project, TeleConsult Austria is responsible for the development of PPP software modules which are implemented within a test system. The development comprises the positioning algorithms as well as modules and data structures for the acquisition of precise data (e.g., ephemerides, satellite clocks, Global Ionospheric Maps etc.) from external sources.

Technical tasks aside, also psychological parameters are analysed during the project. It is investigated how to disseminate information correctly to the people, how the warning levels have to be defined and how people have to be trained that in an acute situation they assess the situation correctly and react correctly.