Apport du GPS au suivi en continu des mouvements de terrain. Application au glissement-coulée de Super-Sauze (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France)

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this work is to evaluate the potential of Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements for the continuous monitoring of landslides. The site being studied is the Super-Sauze earthflow (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France). Our results show that GPS measurements allow monitoring of the three-dimensional motion of the earthflow with an hourly temporal resolution and a sub-centimeter accuracy. GPS measurements carried out in spring and autumn show spatial and temporal (seasonal and daily) variations of the landslide motion. The results presented here show that GPS measurements have the capability of surveying, continuously, the kinematics of geophysical objects with small and slow displacements (~5 mm·d–1) and could thus complement conventional topometric techniques in a warning system.