The G.Re.T.A system for the Italian Railway Network (RFI)
The project
Checking the stability of the ground under conditions of high groundwater level and possible seismic events: this is the challenge of the permanent geoelectric monitoring project called for by the Italian Railway Network (RFI) for the pilot site of Madonna del Piano, a slope located above a tunnel of the high-speed and high-capacity railway line running between Rome-Naples.
The objective is to identify changes in groundwater level in a simple and clear manner through the correlation of rainfall, piezometric and soil resistivity measurements, in order to establish critical thresholds and set up an automatic warning system to cope with hydrogeological risk.
LSI LASTEM monitoring solutions
The installation’s main player is the G.Re.T.A. system, LSI LASTEM’s innovative solution for continuous geoelectric monitoring of large sections of soil. G.Re.T.A. can measure the soil’s resistivity profile alterations over time, to identify any anomalies and send an immediate alarm in presence of dangerous water infiltration.
The application is completed by LSI LASTEM sensors to measure complementary meteorological quantities such as air temperature and humidity, rain and soil temperature at a depth of 1.5m, in addition to the piezometers supplied by Sisgeo, a company specialised in the production of geotechnical and structural monitoring instruments.
The result
The correlation of rainfall, piezometric and soil resistivity measurements is possible thanks to the LSI LASTEM cloud software. Here, all the information coming from the G.Re.T.A. system and the different sensors converges. This makes data accessible remotely, such as:
- Apparent resistivity data (raw data before inversion)
- Resistivity sections afer inversion (2 measurements per day)
- Measurement parameters
- Meteorological data
- Indication of the water table directly on the resistivity section