Real-Time landslide monitoring using single-frequency PPP: Proof of concept

Strong need for a sophisticated landslide monitoring and alerting system has grown especially in mountainous regions. Traditionally, monitoring is performed using time-domain reflectometry by geodesists. Since a few years the Global Positioning System (GPS) dual-frequency Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) approach is widely used for monitoring landslides. However, it should be noted that the setup and the support of dual-frequency RTK is cost intensive. In order to reduce the costs of a GPS-based landslide monitoring system, one could use single-frequency low-cost receivers for RTK or try to utilize a Precise Point Positioning (PPP) approach. A landslide monitoring system using both single-frequency RTK and PPP is developed by Graz University of Technology and TeleConsult Austria GmbH within the GeoWSN project. This paper describes the general structure of a GPS-based landslide monitoring system and discusses aspects of the used PPP approach.