Structural Monitoring of a Masonry Hydraulic Infrastructure in Rome: GIS Integration of SAR Data, Geological Investigation and Historical Surveys

Great part of the existing constructions has reached or overcome its service life. A structural assessment is not always necessary, nevertheless, it is important to monitor these structures, both for their maintenance and preservation of human lives purposes. Remote sensing techniques have proved to be useful in supporting the management process and the safety evaluation, by reducing the impact of disturbances on the construction functionality. Also, the reconstruction of the geological and stratigraphic setting of the soil beneath the construction is fundamental to evaluate any correlation between the ground movements and their causes. In this work, Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar data are used to detect the ground movements experienced by the construction. These data are then integrated in GIS environment with the information about the engineering-geology of the area. The geometry of the structure, based on historical documents, and the subsoil stratigraphy have been modelled in 3D. The procedure is applied to the residential area of Valco San Paolo in Rome. Once the 3D model is constructed, a preliminary structural health monitoring can be performed, providing insights on critical displacement trends. The maximum deformation parameters are compared with limits derived from literature to identify the damage thresholds.

Automated summary

This study utilizes remote sensing techniques and GIS environment to perform structural health monitoring on the residential area of Valco San Paolo in Rome, combining historical documents and engineering-geology information, in order to assess the impact of ground movements on the constructions.