3. Examples of use

3.1 Monitoring engineering structures and measuring ground deformations

GNSS is nominally a positioning tool. Thanks to a series of remarkable scientific studies, it has also been used as an extremely precise long-distance geometric measurement tool. As such, it is now one of the preferred instruments of surveyors and geodesists and, of course, has been used with great success to measure the deformations of large-scale objects. These naturally include engineering structures (bridges, dams, etc.), but also areas of geological instability (landslides, subsidences linked to geological exploitation, etc.) and, even further afield, active tectonic zones (monitoring of seismic zones).

Global tectonics and seismic zone studies are now well established. They involve,...