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Divirod and Oki Electric Industry (OKI) have completed a project to monitor landslide risk and slope stability across vulnerable areas in the Fukuoka Prefecture of Japan. The project deployed Divirod’s next-generation ground deformation and anomaly-detection technology to provide continuous, high-resolution monitoring of mountainous terrain prone to extreme rainfall and seismic activity.
The initiative supports Japan’s broader effort to enhance early-warning capabilities and strengthen climate resilience following recent years of severe rainfall disasters and complex terrain-related hazards.
Monitoring with GNSS-R technology
For the project, Divirod designed a system comprised of GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) sensors and intelligent algorithms and deployed it across three areas of interest collecting continuous, all-weather measurements throughout the monitoring period. Divirod’s proprietary algorithms examined daily GNSS-R measurements to detect even subtle changes in the ground surface.
Divirod’s system successfully classified the observed terrain changes into three key physical categories:
- Slope failure events,
- Creep/slow-moving landslides, and
- Temporary terrain changes (often linked to rainfall or ground moisture variations).
Hundreds of terrain changes were detected across the monitored regions and correlated with rainfall measurements and earthquake events. The results enabled detailed risk mapping and precise identification of active zones.
The technology proved highly sensitive in differentiating short-lived disturbances from long-term geomorphological changes — an essential capability for early intervention and warnings.
Documented landslide at Hakikoga
A significant project highlight was successful detection of a real landslide event in August. While comparison images taken on Aug. 10 and 11 revealed visible changes in the slope during daylight hours, Divirod’s terrain change maps show that the slope movement itself occurred overnight, a time when on-site cameras were unable to observe the event due to darkness.
Despite the lack of visual evidence, Divirod’s GNSS-R sensors registered a distinct spike in ground-movement, accurately detecting the terrain shift and providing clear evidence of a nocturnal landslide that could have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Strengthening the disaster-preparedness ecosystem
Divirod’s collaboration with OKI represents a significant advancement in real-time terrain intelligence for Japan, a region characterized by frequent typhoons, intense rainfall and high seismicity. The successful deployment in the Fukuoka Prefecture presents new opportunities for:
- scalable early-warning systems,
- automated landslide risk modeling,
- and the integration of GNSS-R sensing with existing monitoring infrastructure.
