Italy: Millimetre-level monitoring prevents infrastructure collapse in earthquake-prone Japan

Italian SME GReD is bringing satellite-based structural monitoring to Japan’s aging infrastructure, adapting European technology to address the unique challenges of one of the world’s most seismically active and complex markets.

Bridges and dams built after World War II – which constitute much of Italy’s and Japan’s infrastructure – are reaching the end of their design life. In both countries, these aging structures face additional threats: frequent earthquakes, volcanic activity, and landslides caused by mountainous terrain. When infrastructure slowly deforms over months or years, structural engineers need early warning systems to prevent catastrophic failures.

GReD (Geomatics Research & Development) developed its GeoGuard product for exactly this challenge. The Italian company’s satellite-based service uses IoT devices to receive signals from GNSS satellites, measuring infrastructure movements at millimetre scale. These sensors transmit distance measurements to GReD’s cloud software, which calculates precise three-dimensional positions and tracks deformations over time.

Though individual movements might be small, “these accumulate over time,” explains Eugenio Realini, GReD’s CEO. With the slow buildup of otherwise imperceptible changes over months or years, “the structural engineers might understand that there is some maintenance to do in order to avoid ruptures or collapses.”

Navigating Japan’s complex market entry

After GeoGuard’s proven success in Italy, Japan emerged as a natural second market. Both countries share remarkably similar infrastructure profiles: postwar construction now aging, mountainous geography prone to landslides, and high seismic activity. But market entry proved far from straightforward.

“Procurement is not trivial for foreign companies and in Japan is more difficult than others,” says Luca Escoffier of LCUBE, GReD’s market visibility partner. “Japanese authorities favour domestic providers because of language and distance considerations.”

Through Eureka’s Innowwide framework, GReD structured a six-month feasibility study addressing these barriers. The project brought together Italian legal firm RP Legalitax – with offices in both countries – to navigate Japan’s regulatory framework, LCUBE for market analysis, and Japanese partners Kitahama Partners and Magellan Systems Japan for local deployment support.

The collaboration proved transformative for the technically oriented team. “I have a technical background and strong research background and I’m not a businessperson,” Realini admits. “The Eureka framework helps in targeting market-oriented activities and analysis that we needed before trying to enter a complex market like Japan.”

Technical adaptation and unexpected innovation

The project required more than legal and market groundwork. GReD adapted GeoGuard’s algorithms to incorporate Japan’s QZSS satellite constellation, which Japanese authorities prefer alongside global positioning systems. This technical adjustment during stakeholder interactions sparked an unexpected innovation: water-level monitoring in urban areas.

By exploiting GNSS signals that bounce off water surfaces – typically noise for positioning purposes – GReD developed an additional monitoring capability. Testing proved successful, adding a parallel application to the core infrastructure monitoring service.

The feasibility study generated tangible results beyond market analysis. Eureka funding enabled GReD’s attendance at CEATEC 2024, Tokyo’s major technology exhibition. More significantly, the project catalysed ongoing partnerships: LCUBE’s Escoffier launched a second company representing European firms entering Japan, now packaging GReD’s service with complementary technologies for infrastructure managers.

Realini will present at SushiTech, Tokyo’s largest technology event, in coming months. And in an ironic twist of international collaboration, the project connected GReD with TOKBO, an Italian company producing sensorised monitoring for large infrastructure – only to discover they are neighbours across Lake Como, now jointly bidding on Far East monitoring contracts.

For aging infrastructure in seismically active regions, millimetre-scale monitoring isn’t just measurement – it’s prevention.