AN APPROPRIATE GPS TECHNOLOGY FOR LANDSLIDE MONITORING

AT EAST-WEST HIGHWAY, PERAK, MALAYSIA

WAN AZIZ W.A & KHAMARRUL A.R

Faculty of Geoinformation Science & Engineering
University Technology Malaysia
Skudai 81310, Johore

ABSTRACT

Landslide is a general term used to describe the down-slope of soil, rock and
organic material under the influence of gravity. This phenomena cause property
damage, injury, death and adversely affect a variety of resources in the disaster areas.
Nowadays, the GPS technology has shown that it is capable to monitor sub-centimeter
deformations of this ground movement. The main advantage of GPS sensors
compared to conventional deformation monitoring sensors is that GPS requires no
line-of-sight between the stations. This enables GPS to monitor the landslides even
during unfavorable weather conditions either in real time or post-processing mode.
However, the attainable accuracy of a GPS based system is limited by the satellite
geometry and by systematic errors such as multipath, weak satellite geometry, etc. To
monitor the landslide phenomena, it is imposed to represent the area under
investigation by a number of points that are monumented durably. Some stations are
used to define a stable reference frame and the remaining stations are the monitoring
points situated in the deformation area. In this way, the determination of the
movement of the control stations is done relatively to the reference ones. This paper
therefore highlights an investigation of landslide motions to discover possible
precursors of mass movement. The first practical applications were the deformation
measurements at two small landslide areas at Peninsular East-West Highway, Km22
and Km26. Some preliminary results are presented.

1. INTRODUCTION

The assessment of landslide behavior is usually undertaken by means of

monitoring scheme. Usually, the measurement of superficial displacement is the
simplest way to observe the history of a landslide and to analyse the kinematics of the
movement. In all cases, measurements have to be made efficiently in terms of time,
manpower and budget.
In the past, a variety of surveying techniques have been used to detect the
superficial movements of unstable area (Mikkelsen, 1996). For examples, tapes and
wire devices have been used to measure changes in distance between points or crack
walls (Gulla et al., 1988). Levels, theodolites, Electronic Distance Measurement
(EDM), and total station measurements provide both the coordinates and changes of
target, control points and landslide features (Ashkenazi et al., 1980). In addition,
aerial or terrestrial photogrammetry provides point coordinates, contour maps and
cross-section of the landslides. Photogrammetry compilation enables a quantitative
analysis of the change in slope morphology and also the determination of the
movement vectors (Oka, 1998). A comprehensive summary of the main methods and
their precisions is shown in Table: 1.

1
Table:1
a
Overview of methods used in measuring surface displacement and their precision
(Mikkelsen, 1996)
Method Typical Range Results Typical Precision
GPS variable (< 20 km) ∆X, ∆Y, ∆Z 5-10mm + 1-2ppm
Elec. Dist. Meas. (EDM) variable (1-14 km) ∆distance 1-5mm + 1-5ppm
Fixed Wire Extensometer < 10-80 m ∆distance 0.3 mm/30m
Surveying triangulation < 300-1000 m ∆X, ∆Y, ∆Z 5-10 mm
Surveying traverses variable ∆X, ∆Y, ∆Z 5-10 mm
Geometrical levelling variable ∆Z 2-5 mm/km
Precise geometrical level variable ∆Z 0.2-1 mm/km
Terrestrial photogrammetry Ideally < 100 m ∆X, ∆Y, ∆Z 20 mm from 100 m
Aerial photogrammetry Hflight < 500 m ∆X, ∆Y, ∆Z 10 cm
a
Note: 1ppm means one part per million or 1additional millimetre per kilometre of measured line.

Nowadays, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has been fully operational.
The GPS equipment is more reliable, cheaper, faster, and easier to use compared to
conventional instruments. New hardwares, field procedures and softwares have also
been developed to assist users in data collection and processing purposes. Thus, the
GPS equipment has become more progressive and used for a wide range of
monitoring applications. This paper therefore highlights the performance of GPS
technology in landslide monitoring encompassing a specific large-scale area.

2. THE USE OF GPS TECHNOLOGY IN LANDSLIDE MAPPING

A landslide phenomenon is one of the terms to be used in describing the

down-slope of soil, rock and organic material under the influence of gravity.
Landslide studies can be organized into three phases, detection and classification of
landslides; monitoring activity of existing landslides; analysis and prediction of slope
failures in space (spatial distribution) and time (temporal distribution). The second
stage in a landslide study is typically monitoring the movement of a landslide. This
involves the comparison of landslide conditions over time, including the aerial extent
of the landslide, the speed of movement and the change in the surface topography.
Using either geotechnical methods or GPS technology the magnitude, direction of the
slide, and the boundary of the landslide block can be determined.
The GPS is a radio navigation, timing and positioning system with a wide set
of applications. By tracking the electromagnetic waves that are sent continuously to
the earth, the system can obtain the 3D coordinates (Φ, λ, h or x, y, z). The GPS
system has become a valuable complement or extension to the conventional surveying
methods (theodolite, tapes, EDM, total stations, etc). Field surveys are usually carried
out within a frequently given period. The results are discontinuous over time, and
related to the cumulative movements of the surface points.
The accuracy required for the measurement of landslide displacement should
be, in many cases, at least in the order of centimeters (Josep A. Gili et. 2000).
Therefore, the basic question that arises is whether the satellites orbiting 20,200 km

2
above the earth can be used to measure coordinates or displacement of landmark
points located at the ground surface with centimeter accuracy.
Measurement of landslide displacements can be undertaken by means of either
static or kinematic method. The choice depends on the practical considerations : (i)
the accessibility, (ii) number of points, (iii) precision and (iv) distance from point to
point. Nowadays, the most productive methods i.e. modern positioning technique
available for determining single points with precision of milimetres or centimeters is
Rapid Static (RS) and Real Time Kinematic (RTK).
The RS method is a development of the classical static method, with improved
algorithms that accelerates the ambiguity resolution procedures. For instance,
measurement of one baseline with six and more satellite available is required for only
a few minutes of data logging. This time increases to 15 and 20 min with five and four
satellites, respectively. In this method, post-processing must be carried out. The data
files from different receivers are merged in order to obtain the solution of the
baselines between station points.
In the RTK method, the information of code and carrier phase observable
received at both extremes of the baseline (base station and rover station) is merged to
compute the precise position on the spot. The base receiver transmits a message
containing its position, the pseudo-ranges measured to the rover through code
correlation and phase measurements of the carrier received from the available
satellites. Prior to obtaining the first results, it is necessary to spend a few minutes to
initialize the system. The RTK calculates new positions from the old ones, through
continuous tracking of the satellites in real time. In this procedure, therefore, the post-
processing of the field data is not required. Any problem encountered with the
equipment can be localized and solved immediately. It works quickly and gives
results with precision at centimeter level for every second, even during movement. In
RTK, corrections are transmitted to the rover via a local UHF data link; this
transmission is quite directional. Therefore, unless repeaters are used, the RTK
method needs an almost direct line of sight between base and rover. In general, this
method also needs four or more satellite to work. Due to the continuous tracking of
satellite, it is very sensitive to the loss of reception and to the quality of the signal.
Even short interruptions will produce a loss of the initialization. To recover it, at least
five satellites are needed.
Study of mass movement has been monitored using satellite as instrument to
monitor monuments that have been installed in a stable or deform area. It gives the
reference point on monument in each acquired observable. The concept of monitoring
the landslide with GPS technology (Georg Gassner et., 2002, Hitoshi Kondo et., 1996)
is shown in Figure:1.

Figure: 1 - Monitoring scheme; reference station (R,K) in stable area; rover station in the
deformation area.

3
3. THE EXPERIMENTS

The performance of the GPS technique in measuring ground displacements

has been tested in the active landslide phenomena. This landslide area is located at the
East-West Highway, namely km22 and km26, Eastern Perak, Gerik, Malaysia.

a)

b)

Figure: 2 - Location of Gerik Landslide, East-West Highway, (a) km22 and (b) km26

The East-West Highway is the only route that connected the district of Gerik,
Perak to Jeli, Kelantan- see Figure: 2. The Gerik landslide is one of eight locations,
which has been declared and identified by Malaysian government as a high-risk
landslide activity area. The National Landslide Research Center (NASEC) has also
classified this area as a high-risk landslide activity in the ROM format scale.
The GPS preliminary surveys for landslide study were made in February 2003.
Eleven baselines ranging from 62m to 3200m in length were observed by using dual
frequency GPS receivers, Trimble 4800. The static technique has been applied to set
up the reference network in the landslide areas. Figure: 3 (a) and (b) shows the control
network establishment and satellite-receiver geometry during the observation,
respectively.

(a) (b)

Figure: 3- (a) Control network for static observation; (b) Example of planning the geometry
of available satellite in Gerik (Eastern Perak, Malaysia) on February 26, 2003.

4
The rapid static and RTK GPS positioning techniques were used in the landslide
monitoring scheme. In our experiment, two control points have been established at
each landslide areas, namely BM and GK 1 for km22 test site, and JL 1 and JL 2 for
km26 test site. In order to form a complete deformation network, thirteen and fifteen
monitoring stations have also been monumented at sites km22 and km26, respectively
- see Figure: 4 (a) and (b). Figure 5 (a) and (b) show the rapid static observation at the
landslide areas. The static and rapid static GPS data were carried out in post-
processed mode using Trimble Geomatics Office (TGO) software while the GPS
kinematic data were processed in real time mode.

(a) (b)

Figure: 4 - Monitoring network for km22 (a) and km26 (b).

(a) (b)

Figure: 5 (a) and (b) Rapid static GPS observation for km22 and km26,
respectively.

4. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

In the main control network, the results of the static GPS observations for
control points BM, GK1, JL1 and JL2 have been obtained . In this case, their
corresponding coordinated were determined with respect to fixed stations P307 and
P310 – see Table: 2.
It can be seen from Table: 2 that the standard errors in horizontal component
(latitude and longitude) are less than 7mm . This result has shown that the GPS
technique can be obtained with high accuracy . Similarly, the standard errors in
vertical component for control points at km22 and km26 test sites is about 3.2cm and
6cm, respectively. Here, one may noticed that the accuracies were decreased
proportionally with the increase in the distance from base stations; i.e. P307 and P310

5
are 33km, in length. Furthermore the locations for control point JL 1 and JL 2 are also
surrounded by hilly areas and close to transmission lines.

Table: 2 - The Static GPS coordinate is summarized for control points

Station Latitude Standard Longitude Standard Ellipsoid Standard
(U) Error * (T) Error * Height Error *
U (m) T (m) h (m) (m)

P307 05 38 23.83728 0.000 101 01 26.87308 0.000 330.507 0.000

P310 05 23 40.29254 0.000 101 06 34.40618 0.000 122.224 0.000
BM 05 32 11.23097 0.004 101 16 29.88689 0.004 486.418 0.032
GK 1 05 32 11.50055 0.004 101 16 36.29471 0.004 493.689 0.032
JL 1 05 31 53.60202 0.007 101 17 50.82980 0.007 569.596 0.068
JL 2 05 31 54.83558 0.006 101 17 52.42607 0.007 566.086 0.064
* Standard errors are given as positional errors

Results of rapid static survey for East-West Highways at km22 and km26 are
summarized in Table: 3 and Table: 4, respectively.

Table: 3
Rapid Static coordinates of monitoring station for East-West Highway, Km22

Station Latitude Standard Longitude Standard Ellipsoid Standard

Error Error Height Error
(U) (T)
h (m)
U (m) T (m) h (m)
o o
’ ” ’ ”
BM 05 32 11.23097 0.000 101 16 29.88689 0.000 486.418 0.000
GK 1 05 32 11.50055 0.000 101 16 36.29471 0.000 493.689 0.000
GK 2 05 32 11.68049 0.003 101 16 36.07243 0.008 489.761 0.023
GK 3 05 32 11.55193 0.003 101 16 35.56070 0.003 489.810 0.010
GK 4 05 32 11.54954 0.004 101 16 35.14041 0.004 489.521 0.011
GK 5 05 32 11.57927 0.005 101 16 34.69385 0.005 489.190 0.012
GK 6 05 32 11.57040 0.003 101 16 32.58083 0.004 486.299 0.012
GK 7 05 32 11.80823 0.003 101 16 32.64024 0.004 481.847 0.013
GK 8 05 32 11.90716 0.004 101 16 34.73484 0.004 483.390 0.010
GK 9 05 32 12.11746 0.006 101 16 35.80145 0.010 481.647 0.024
GK10 05 32 12.05171 0.006 101 16 35.50800 0.007 480.263 0.020
GK11 05 32 12.00363 0.005 101 16 35.12696 0.003 480.046 0.008
GK12 05 32 12.19409 0.010 101 16 35.26706 0.009 476.458 0.023
GK13 05 32 12.23518 0.006 101 16 35.48284 0.006 477.019 0.017
GK14 05 32 12.52360 0.005 101 16 35.60732 0.009 471.679 0.023

6
Table: 4 - Rapid Static coordinates of monitoring station for East-West Highway, Km26

Station Latitude Standard Longitude Standard Ellipsoid Standard

(U) Error (T) Error Height Error
U (m) T (m) h (m) (m)
o o
’ ” ’ ”
JL 1 05 31 53.60202 0.000 101 17 50.82980 0.000 569.596 0.000
JL 2 05 31 54.83558 0.000 101 17 52.42607 0.000 566.086 0.000
JL 3 05 31 53.33797 0.009 101 17 52.07971 0.012 568.048 0.026
JL 4 05 31 53.11514 0.008 101 17 52.22125 0.009 575.162 0.028
JL 5 05 31 52.90644 0.008 101 17 52.33075 0.010 581.419 0.030
JL 6 05 31 52.64970 0.010 101 17 52.70459 0.012 589.951 0.034
JL 7 05 31 51.61859 0.008 101 17 53.68194 0.008 622.809 0.031
JL 8 05 31 51.99985 0.008 101 17 54.03489 0.011 622.655 0.033
JL 9 05 31 52.72589 0.010 101 17 53.73441 0.008 602.528 0.030
JL 10 05 31 52.54302 0.011 101 17 53.41095 0.009 602.030 0.024
JL 11 05 31 53.29708 0.019 101 17 53.88968 0.011 592.985 0.053
JL 12 05 31 53.06233 0.028 101 17 53.47647 0.018 591.969 0.069
JL 13 05 31 53.55648 0.047 101 17 53.98345 0.020 586.612 0.232
JL 14 05 31 53.32848 0.011 101 17 53.42551 0.008 585.950 0.050
JL 15 05 31 52.90346 0.007 101 17 52.89382 0.012 585.103 0.045
JL 16 05 31 53.21391 0.010 101 17 52.78101 0.011 576.800 0.052
JL 17 05 31 54.72544 0.012 101 17 54.54305 0.012 563.169 0.058

It can be seen from Table: 3 and Table: 4 that the accuracy of vertical
component for km22 in horizontal components lies in between 2cm-20cm whereby
the largest values occurred for the monitoring of points JL12 and JL13. This problem
was due to the sky view environment and poor satellite-receiver geometry (DOP) at
these stations during the observation.
The results of RTK observations is also given in Figure: 5(a) and 5(b) in local
coordinate (RSO). From this figure, one may noticed that the derived coordinates at
the selected monitoring points were fluctuated within centimeter level. The results
show that the RTK technique can also be utilized in landslide monitoring scheme.

7
 TIME 12:23:26 – 12:23:43 PM

TIME 12: 25: 27 – 12: 25: 59 PM

Figure:5 (a) Results of RTK survey for station; GK 4 and GK 3 at Km22 test site.

TIME 1:37:46 – 1: 37: 16 PM

TIME 1:39: 47 – 1: 40: 17 PM

Figure:5 (b) Results of RTK survey for station; JL14 and JL15 at Km26 test site.

8
5. CONCLUSION

GPS is a very useful tool to be utilized for a wide range of scientific

applications. This technology increases the accuracy, productivity, monitoring
capability, rapidity and economy with respect to size of the study area and it is often
better than classical geodetic survey techniques. This paper evaluates the appropriate
GPS technique i.e Rapid Static and RTK for monitoring the landslide behaviour at
two test areas, km22 and km26, East-West Highway. The results indicated that the
GPS modern techniques is very reliable for landslide monitoring survey whereby
deformation of superficial displacement will be determined with another epoch of
GPS data collections (Martin Vermeer, 2002).

References

Ashkenazi, V., Dodson, A.H., Sykes, R.M., Crane, S.A. (1980): ‘Remote
Measurement of Ground Movement by Surveying Techniques’. Civil Eng.
Survey. 5 (4), 15-22.

Georg Gassner, Andreas Wieser, Fritz K. Brunner (2002): ‘GPS Software

Development For Monitoring of Landslide’. Proc. FIG XXII, Deformation
Measurement and Analysis II, Congress Washington, D.C. pp. 12.

Gulla, G., Nicoletti, P.G., Sorriso-Valvo, M. (1988): ‘A Portable Device for

Measuring Displacements Along Fractures, Proc. 5th Int. Symp. On Landslide,
Lausanne Vol.1, 423-426.

Hitoshi Kondo, Akira Sugiyama and M.Elizabeth Cannon (1996): ‘Precise Carrier
Phase GPS and Its Application To Real-Time Landslide Detection’. IEEE
TENCON- Digital Signal Processing Application, Vol.2, Page(s): 906-911.

Josep A. Gili, Jordi Corominas, Joan Rius (2000): ‘Using Global Positioning System
Techniques In Landslide Monitoring’. Engineering Geology 55 (2000) 167-192,
Barcelona, Sepanyol.

Martin Vermeer (2002): ‘Review of The GPS Deformation Monitoring Studies’.

Report of Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK-YTO-TR)186
Helsinki, Finland.

Mikkelsen, P.E. (1996): ‘Field Instrumentation. In: Turner, A.K., Schuster, R.L.
(Eds.), Landslides Investigation and Mitigation, TRB Special Report 247.
National Academy Press, Washington, DC, pp.278-316, Chapter 11.

Oka, N. (1998): ‘Application of Photogrammetry to the Field Observation of Failed

Slopes. Eng.Geol. 50, 85-100.