Satellite monitoring for road infrastructure safety in Italy
The design and construction of roads and motorways are strongly affected by any movement taking place on the ground. Italy is particularly subject to unexpected ground movement including landslides, subsidence and earthquakes. Avoiding or mitigating the consequences of such events poses significant challenges for planning, building and maintenance of road infrastructure. The ground motion service ...Read more
Rheticus services supports Indonesian Authorities after earthquake
On 28 September 2018, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, followed by a tsunami hit the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The natural disaster killed over 2,000 lives, left 100,000 people in need of emergency assistance, destroyed buildings, infrastructures, and farmland in several districts. A joint program of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) ...Read more
Proactive maintenance of bridges and viaducts from satellite
Keeping the stability of road infrastructures under control is a necessary and fundamental activity. Infrastructures like bridges and viaducts need scheduled check-ups and constant maintenance programs, suitable for safeguarding their efficiency, durability and reliability. An effective preventive maintenance program provides for detailed knowledge of the infrastructure, together with an advanced static and dynamic monitoring system ...Read more
Predicting landslide incidents in Friuli Venezia Giulia region with Rheticus Safeland
Monitoring land instability to prevent incidents. Land instability can cause serious damage to infrastructure and the environment, and it poses a threat to citizen safety. Falling rocks may destroy roads, pipes, and buildings and even kill bystanders. In recent years, a continuous growth of the intensity and frequency of land stability phenomena has been observed, ...Read more
Pinpointing the failure from Space: the sewerage network of Milan
Introduction Water can be a destructive force, washing away roadbeds and eroding riverbanks. Sometimes it works silently and invisibly, removing soil beneath parking lots and roads until they cave in, exposing sinkholes that shallow houses and cars. Subsidence, or when the ground begins to sink, is an indication of a problem. This does not need ...Read more
Turning radar data into action: slope instabilities in the urban area of Niscemi (Italy)
Introduction Land instability is a key activity to ensure people’s safety, environmental protection and the safeguarding of infrastructures and strategic assets. However, traditional campaigns for the regular monitoring of wide areas require considerable financial resources, time and are often complex to implement. Problem Niscemi is an historical village located up above a hilly area in ...Read more
The Marine face of Rheticus: coastal water monitoring of the Epirus Region
Introduction Eutrophication of coastal areas is one of the most important and long lasting water quality problems for densely populated and industrialised countries. It can greatly affect coastal ecosystems. It is included among the Descriptors of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) needed for evaluating the Good Environment Status (GES) of marine areas. Furthermore, ...Read more
Wildfires capture from Space
Introduction Every year significant wildfire activities across Italy and worldwide is registered, especially within national parks and protected areas. Wildfires represent a major threat to environmental resources, with hundreds of thousands of hectares of burnt areas and invaluable loss of woods and biodiversity every year. Over the 2017 summer season, the Alta Murgia National Park ...Read more