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as near real-time satellite rainfall estimation [9-10], synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
images ground displacements [11], SAR based landslide inventory [12], monitoring
system and displacement measurements based on ground-based synthetic aperture radar
interferometer [13]. Current challenges in the framework of radar researches are mainly
devoted to the development of low-cost, compact radar systems, able to provide high-
resolution capabilities and flexible signal processing techniques with multipurpose
features. Recently, a research activity at University of Calabria has been started to
address the above requirements in the framework of a national project (PON 01_01503
National Italian Project “Landslides Early Warning”) focused on the monitoring, early
warning and mitigation of landslide risk, where the accurate detection of displacements
from large areas is of primary importance. When considering standard real aperture
radars, limited resolution capabilities, typically of the order of tens meters at high
microwave frequencies, can be achieved. To further improve the resolution, synthetic
aperture radar techniques and/or interferometric methods are usually adopted, but at the
expense of increased signal processing complexity. On the other hand, to achieve
penetrating capabilities, high wavelengths should be adopted, at the expense of an
increasing size of the required antennas. Two face the above difficulties, radar activity at
University of Calabria has been addressed to the design of simple and low-cost solutions,
by identifying two specific radar configurations: a versatile radar based on an innovative
software platform, and a C-band SFCW scatterometer radar adopting a compact structure
based on Vector Network Analyzer.
2
Landslides Early Warning Integrated System (LEWIS)
In the framework of the National Operational Programme 2007-13 “Research and
Competitiveness”, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the
Ministry of Research (MIUR) financed the project “An Integrated System for
Landslide Monitoring, Early Warning and Risk Mitigation along Lifelines”, with
acronym LEWIS.
The system includes many components: standard criteria for evaluation and
mapping landslides susceptibility, monitoring equipment for measuring the onset of
landslide movement, telecommunication networks, mathematical models for both
triggering and propagation of landslides induced by rainfall, models for risk scenario
forecasting, a center for data acquisition and processing and a traffic control center.
A flow chart, showing the interrelation among the different components, is
outlined in Fig 1.
The system integration allows to maximize its operational flexibility as each
developed component provides different interchangeable technological solutions.
Therefore, the final system may assume many different configurations from the
simplest to the most complex one, dealing with different scenarios. Flexibility
essentially depends on both the wide range of monitoring equipment and the different
kind of mathematical models that have been realized.
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