What is GeoGuard?

GeoGuard is an innovative end-to-end GNSS service for continuous monitoring of structures and ground deformation..


GeoGuard service includes hardware and activities specifically designed for monitoring the displacements and deformations of structures and ground on selected points, customized to different application scenarios, by means of accurate price-competitive GNSS positioning with centimeter-level accuracy in near real-time, or millimeter-level accuracy for daily/sub-daily solutions.

Field inspection

Preliminary inspection of the site to be monitored, in order to design the most appropriate solution.

Hardware deployment

Deployment of the survey infrastructure, consisting of GeoGuard monitoring units, based on the characteristics of the site.

Data transmission

Connectivity configuration between the survey infrastructure and GeoGuard Cloud.

Data processing

GeoGuard Cloud is the infrastructure where data is collected and processed. The positioning and management data are provided to the customer's information systems

Customer support



Online help desk service, to support the customer in daily operations.

Professional services


Design, implementation and management of customized solutions based on the customer's business needs.

Social & Industrial Challenges

From today until 2030, an estimated $ 57 trillion in infrastructure investments. $ 400 billion a year could be saved by getting more out of existing capacity.
Accurate and timely measurements of the geometry of critical infrastructure ensure these results and help in the prevention of catastrophic failures and in the reduction of insurance costs*.
Economic losses due to natural disasters (landslides, floods, earthquakes and droughts) since 2000 are on the order of $ 2.5 trillion**.
An adequate monitoring system facilitates the development of hazard prediction to mitigate or eliminate the risk, thus promoting management strategies.


GeoGuard is designed to address and respond to social and industrial challenges:

Natural Hazards

Precise and timely measurements to predict hazards and mitigate or eliminate risks. In particular for:
subsidence •
uplift due to natural phenomena or production/storage of oil & gas •
landslides and river floods •
extreme weather events •

Infrastructure

Precise and timely measurements of the infrastructure movements and deformations. In particular for:
• transportation
• travel (eg. bridges, airports, harbors, railways)
• water distribution (eg. water tanks, pipelines)
• energy (eg. dams for hydro power plants, penstoks, towers for high voltage, wind farms)
• domestic security for military purpose (eg. radars, radio systems)
• telecommunication infrastructure (eg. data, cellular and broadcasting network towers)
• oil&gas transportation and storage
• cultural heritage and large stadiums preservation

* McKinsey Global Institute, Infrastructure Practices January 2013
** UNISDR 2013 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR13)

System Architecture


The architecture of the GeoGuard system consists of two main components:

GeoGuard Monitoring Unit (GMU)

It is based on newly developed competitively priced GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receivers. The detection infrastructure consists of one or more GMUs, integrated with additional detection equipment according to the customer's needs, permanently installed on the object to be monitored.

GeoGuard Cloud

It is the system that collects and organizes data from GMU, verifies the integrity of the data flow, performs the processing of positioning data to obtain and analyze the deformations.

GeoGuard Monitoring Unit (GMU)

A GMU is a remote terminal unit specifically designed to operate in harsh environments. It can be powered anywhere, as it runs on AC, DC or solar power. GeoGuard Cloud can remotely manage the units via two-way communication. The GMU unit contains:

  • Processing Module: it includes microprocessor unit and local storage unit;
  • Communication Module: it includes communication functions with Ethernet, GSM/3G LTE and M2M radio connections;
  • Positioning Module: it is equipped with an L1 GNSS receiver (GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BeiDou constellations) and a 3-Axis MEMS accelerometer;
  • Sensing Module: it features digital and analog I/O as well as an industry standard communication bus to connect and monitor any sensor required by the specific application;
  • Power Module: provides alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) power from various sources, including photovoltaic panels.

Geoguard Cloud

The core of the GeoGuard service receives and processes data from the survey infrastructure and provides the customer with time series on the location of points, displacement and deformation information. It consists of the following functions:

  • Survey infrastructure interface: Receives raw GNSS positioning / sensor data and unit metadata from the survey infrastructure;
  • Remote GMU management: provides all the information needed to manage the service, including administrative and service level agreement data;
  • Data processing: is designed to take full advantage of the measurements of price-competitive GNSS receivers and is dedicated to performing statistical and quality analyzes of input observations and output results (detection of trends and sudden changes in position and time series of sensors ), in order to issue early warnings to the customer. It uses the goGPS processing engines and Bernese GPS Software 5.2;
  • End user service interface: displays the information provided by the GeoGuard service in two different ways:
    • a WEB Application enabling users to exploit the GeoGuard service functionalities according to the end user practices;
    • a REST API allowing fast and easy integration of GeoGuard services into external management information systems.

GeoGuard Companies

News

Press
Il Sole 24 Ore

Geoguard mentioned in the important Italian newspaper "Il sole 24 ore"

News
Terna Partnership

Monitoring of high voltage electrical towers for TERNA Rete Italia


Contacts

Contact us at:
info@geoguard.eu

Algowatt

Green Tech Solutions
Corso Magenta, 85
20123 Milano, Italy
Phone:+39 01060261
Fax: +39 0106026350
info@algowatt.com
algowatt.com

GReD

Geomatics Research & Development srl
c/o ComoNExT, Via Cavour 2
22074 Lomazzo (CO), Italy
Phone:+39 02 36714448
Fax: +39 02 36714453
info@g-red.eu
www.g-red.eu