EXPERIMENTAL TEST ON CONTROL POINTS MATERIALIZATION FOR THE STUDY OF VERTICAL MOVEMENTS OF SOIL AND ITS INTERACTIONS WITH GROUND WATER CONTENTS

Abstract. In the study of soil vertical movements, one of the techniques most commonly used is the spirit levelling, now flanked by satellite SAR interferometry and by the analysis of time series acquired through permanent GNSS stations.

The reliability of control points monuments varies depending both on the geological context and on the structure being representative of the investigated phenomenon. Often due to the high number of desired points or to the need of maintaining a specific areal distribution, they are fixed on existing structures (as in the common case of spirit levelling networks). This aspect is even more evident in the case of SAR interferometric analysis, where the permanent scatterers are identified on the basis of consistency in the radar response, but the points display movements measured by structures with different foundations at different depths.

Starting from repeated precision levelling measurements, we verified which is the order of magnitude of movements of control points characterized by shallow foundations in cohesive soils, observing their behaviours at different depths, under simple and very common conditions such as the presence of periods of drought or rainfall. The results point-out movements in the order of 3–7 mm in the first meter of depth occurred in a week, during the transition between the period of summer drought and the first rains.