Application of Multi-Antenna GPS Technology in Monitoring Stability of Slopes

There are a great number of man-made and natural slopes in many parts of the world including Hong Kong and Mainland China. For example, there are over 40,000 slopes in Hong Kong registered by the Hong Kong Government. Landslides due to slope failures can often cause catastrophes that involve the loss of both lives and important facilities. GPS has been demonstrated to have great potentials for use in monitoring slope stability and landslides. However, the high hardware cost of GPS has limited the wide spread use of GPS for such applications. The multi-antenna GPS technology initiated by the research group and our collaborators has significantly reduced the cost of GPS and provided a solution to a number of associated problems such as data management and power supply. This paper discusses practical applications of multi-antenna GPS technology in slope monitoring, including system design, setting up, data transmission and management, and data quality analysis and control. Some slope monitoring examples are given to illustrate the points discussed.