What is GBSAR and Its Application?

Nov 05 | 06:44 p.m. | by iRadar News

Hazards due to ground movements (such as landslides, terrain subsidence, glaciers, etc.) and instability in man-made structures (such as bridges, towers, dams, etc.) can lead to considerable human and economic losses. Conventionally, the monitoring of ground movements uses geodetic methods such as total stations, levelling, and GPS, which are very limited to observations at distinct points.

Laser scanning (LIDAR) and photogrammetric techniques can cover more expansive areas, but they can only be applied during daytime and under good weather conditions. The “Ground-Based Surface Deformation Monitoring Radar” (or GBSAR) developed by iRadar aims to solve the challenges by providing a ground-based, highly compact radar for monitoring earth terrain and man-made structural movements.

The GBSAR is an active microwave system. It transmits its own microwave signals and receives the return echoes from the target of interest. Thus, it can operate day and night. Besides, it can operate in all weather conditions, such as during the rainy season. This feature is handy since Malaysia is located in the Tropical region, and some areas are always invisible to optical or LIDAR instruments.

With the high precision and high-speed motorized platform, the scanning process can be completed within a minute, which is fast compared to other methods like LIDAR. As a result, the GBSAR is particularly useful for surface deformation monitoring in real-time.

Currently, iRadar has developed two models of GBSAR called G5000 and G2000-M / L. Both GBSAR developed by iRadar are highly portable, easy to deploy, and continuously monitored under all weather conditions. This radar system is very suitable for disaster monitoring, risk assessment, and establishing an early warning framework for hazard management. A similar ground-based radar system has been deployed in Europe for avalanche detection and potential landslide in a mining area.

It can be applied in various areas to monitor the surface deformation of earth environments (such as landslides, terrain subsidence, falling rocks, glaciers, avalanches, volcanoes, etc.) and man-made structures (such as bridges, buildings, towers, dams, roads, etc.). However, this solution is still relatively new and not commonly used in Asia, especially South East Asia, because it is expensive and difficult to deploy at remote sites.

The GBSAR developed by iRadar has been deployed in Gunung Pass, Cameron Highland, Malaysia, a landslide-prone area. Besides, several case studies have been conducted in Taiwan to perform scanning on various test sites such as Huoyanshan mountain, Taoyuan MRT Station, Wulai village, Simon water dam, and ChaoJing Park.

 

For more exciting information, please visit HERE.