SWS Academic Research eLibraryEarth & Planetary Sciences

Scholarly record

COMPARISON BETWEEN TERRESTRIAL AND INSAR INTERFEROMETRY POSITIONING IN THE MONITORING OF THE ROCKFILL DAM RAUSOR (ROMANIA)

Tiberiu Rus, Valentin Danciu, Constantin Moldoveanu, Delia Teleaga, Valentin Poncos

First published: 2026DOI pendingView metrics

Abstract

The monitoring of the construction behavior is one of the important activities carried out to determine the state of construction, subject to various natural and anthropogenic actions at a given time. In Romania, the activity of rockfill dams monitoring is regulated according to the importance category (A, B, C). The Rausor Dam is located downstream of the confluence of the River Rausor with the river Targului, which springs from the Iezer - Papusa Mountains in the central part of Romania. Being part of importance category B, this dam is also monitored by geodetic methods. The geodetic monitoring network includes horizontal and vertical markers established for classical terrestrial measurements (distances, angles and height differences) and few of them able to be observed by GNSS technology in epoch sessions and continuously by four permanent stations. This network it is divided in a main network established in the same time with dam construction and a densification network established for the upper part of the dam where higher superficial rock displacements are observed. The main network it is observed early and the densification network three times by year. Since 2017 GEOS research center from TU of Civil Engineering Bucharest (UTCB) performed classical (EDM and leveling) and satellite (GNSS) observations in order to monitor horizontal and vertical position of the geodetic markers installed on the rockfill dam. In the last two years, GEOS and TERRASIGNA SRL (Romania), realized a comparison between terrestrial/GNSS positioning and InSAR interferometry in the monitoring of the rockfill-dam Rausor. The Sentinel-1 derived PS InSAR results for the dam were validated against in-situ terrestrial measurements spanning from 2017 to 2024. This ground-truth validation relied on a geodetic monitoring system. The results indicated a good agreement for the vertical site displacements with RMSE generally ranges between 2.0 mm and 6.0 mm. The long-term velocity differences are small varying in general with maximum 3 mm/year for the vertical component.

Publication details

Title
COMPARISON BETWEEN TERRESTRIAL AND INSAR INTERFEROMETRY POSITIONING IN THE MONITORING OF THE ROCKFILL DAM RAUSOR (ROMANIA)
Authors
Tiberiu Rus, Valentin Danciu, Constantin Moldoveanu, Delia Teleaga, Valentin Poncos
Proceedings
SWS 2026 Conference Preprints
Publisher
STEF92 Technology
Year
2026
Pages
Not available yet
ISSN
1314-2704; 1314-2704
ISBN
Not available yet
Language
en
Publication type
Preprint
References11
  1. Plopeanu, M.; Ilie, A. S.; Rus, T.; Danciu, V.; Moldoveanu, C., Special geodetic monitoring of rockfill dams - Râușor dam case, 19th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2019, 30 June - 6 July, 2019, Albena, Bulgaria, pp. 319-326, ISBN: 978-619-7408-80-5, ISSN: 1314-2704, DOI: 10.5593/sgem2019/2.2/S09.039

  2. Scaioni M, Marsella M, Crosetto M, Tornatore V, Wang J. Geodetic and Remote-Sensing Sensors for Dam Deformation Monitoring. Sensors. 2018; 18(11):3682. DOI: 10.3390/s18113682

  3. Sousa, J.J.; Hlaváčová, I.; Bakoň, M.; Lazecký, M.; Patrício, G.; Guimarães, P.; Ruiz, A.M.; Bastos, L.; Sousa, A.; Bento, R. Potential of Multi-Temporal InSAR Techniques for Bridges and Dams Monitoring. Procedia Technol. 2014, 16, 834-841. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef

  4. Maltese, A.; Pipitone, C.;Dardanelli, G.; Capodici, F.; Muller,J.-P. Toward a Comprehensive DamMonitoring: On-Site and Remote-Retrieved Forcing Factors and Resulting Displacements (GNSS and PS-InSAR). Remote Sens. 2021,13, 1543. DOI: 10.3390/rs13081543

  5. Pipitone, C.; Maltese, A.; Dardanelli, G.; Lo Brutto, M.; La Loggia, G. Monitoring Water Surface and Level of a Reservoir Using Different Remote Sensing Approaches and Comparison with Dam Displacements Evaluated via GNSS. Remote Sensing 2018, 10, 71. DOI: 10.3390/rs10010071

  6. Ilie A.S., Rus T., Danciu V., Plopeanu M., Cristea C., CUSTOM-BUILT GNSS SYSTEM FOR GEODETIC APPLICATIONS, 21th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2021, Albena, Bulgaria, pp. 137-144, ISBN: 978-619-7603-22-4, ISSN: 1314-2704, DOI: 10.5593/sgem2021/2.1/s09.43

  7. Thankappan, Medhavy & Garthwaite, Matthew & Williams, Mark & Hislop, Andrew & Nancarrow, Shane & Dawson, John. (2013). Characterisation of Corner Reflectors for the Australian Geophysical Observing System to Support SAR Calibration

  8. European Ground Motion Service "” Copernicus Land Monitoring Service https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/european-ground-motion-service , accessed 10.06.2026

  9. PSTool | Satellite Deformation Monitoring & Risk Intelligence - https://pstool.terrasigna.com/ , accessed 4.06.2026

  10. https://www.icold-cigb.org/ - International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), accessed 4.06.2026

  11. Poncos, Valentin & Stanciu, Irina & Teleaga, D. & Maţenco, Liviu & Bozsó, István & Szakács, Alexandru & Birtas, Dan & Toma, Stefan-Adrian & Stanica, Adrian & Radulescu, Vlad. (2022). An Integrated Platform for Ground-Motion Mapping, Local to Regional Scale; Examples from SE Europe. Remote Sensing. 14. 1046. DOI: 10.3390/rs14041046

Back to publication list