Case Study II: The GPS Network for Gujarat Earthquake of January 2001 The tragic earthquake that

struck the Gujarat region of western India on 26 Jan. 2001, destroying thousands of lives and valuable property, has once again highl ighted the need and importance of monitoring the post-earthquake deformations fo r understanding the complex earthquake mechanism. Keeping in view the urgent nat ure of the work, immediate Global Positioning System (GPS) observations were car ried out in the area by the GPS team of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (I ITB). The aim is not only to understand the post-earthquake crustal deformation pattern, but also to establish precise GPS control for monitoring crustal dynami cs in this earthquake-affected region in the future. Field Data Collection The existing geodetic control network in the earthquake-affected Bhuj region con sists of several geodetic stations at approximately 20-40 km spacing, of the ser ies of the Great Trignometrical (GT) Triangulation Network of India (Bendick et al, 2001). These series have been established during the mid-nineteenth century. GPS observations at these stations would yield valuable data about the cruatal deformations in the region due to various causes, including the earthquakes of 1 919 and 2001. Hence, immediately after the January 2001 Bhuj earthquake, during the GPS field campaign of February, 2001, a total of 17 stations, including 5 ol d GT stations, which were found intact, and 12 new stations established close to the GT stations found destroyed/disturbed, have been observed by our team (Fig. 2). Four 4000SSI Trimble dual frequency geodetic GPS receivers were used for th is. The observations were carried out in four campaigns, as shown in Fig. 1, wit h 48 hours of continuous observations at every station. The aim of establishing these stations is to monitor the deformations of the region from a reference poi nt outside the region, and to monitor the deformations of the region near the ep icentre. It is proposed to reoccupy some more geodetic stations, and carry out r epeat observations at all these stations within a period of 6 months to 1 year, to study the deformation pattern. These observations will be useful in estimatin g the crustal deformation in the region, in order to understand the seismic acti vities there. Data Analysis & Preliminary Results GPS data collected by our team has been pre-processed using the GPSurvey softwar e, and processed using Bernese 4.2 software developed by the University of Bern. The permanent IGS station at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, has been taken as a reference station. Precise satellite orbit files have been used for the data processing. The results obtained indicate that the maximum RMS err or in the estimation of coordinates is less then 1 centimeter. The maximum RMS e rror in estimating the base line length is found to be 1.03 cm, which is somewha t higher than expected. The probable cause is that the distance to the reference station is quite large. Even though a detailed analysis of the data to estimate the deformations is only possible after repeat observations, the following problems related to the data collection, processing and analysis may be mentioned here: Due to the difficult conditions in the earthquake-affected region immediatel y after the earthquake, extensive field work was not possible. The existing GT stations in the area were established over 150 years ago, an d many were found destroyed/disturbed. Due non-availability of data from any reference station in the vicinity, a r eference station at about 1500 km from the area had to be taken for data process ing. The co-ordinates of the existing GT stations are in Everest Datum, which mus t be converted to WGS84 Datum for comparison with the GPS-derived co-ordinates a t the observed stations. Precise transformation parameters required for such con version are presently not available, hence comparison with old co-ordinates will not yield precise estimates of the deformations.

Conclusions and Future Work The GPS network in Koyna will yield precise estimates of the deformations in the dam structure, as well as the crustal deformations in the vicinity of the dam a nd reservoirs, after sufficient number of repeat observations, over a long perio d. It is planned to carry out such repeat observations at least twice a year ove r next 4-5 years. An integrated analysis of these results, with those obtained f rom the dam instrumentation, will help us in understanding the behaviour of the dam structure and its surroundings under different loading conditions and seismi c activities. The first phase of GPS measurements in the Bhuj region has given precise estimat es of the coordinates and baseline lengths of the GPS stations now established, to few mm accuracy. Due to the various problems related to the data processing a nd analysis mentioned above, a detailed analysis of the data and initial estimat es of the deformation vectors is possible only after repeat observations. In the next phase, it is planned to re-observe the same network, and also add few more old GT stations to the network, for future monitoring of crustal deformations i n the region. A comprehensive analysis for drawing inferences about the earthqua ke-related deformations would be possible only by comparison of data collected t hrough GPS campaigns in different phases over a period of few years. This would yield reliable estimates of the displacements and velocities of the GPS stations in the region. An integrated analysis with data from other sources and techniqu es is necessary before definite conclusions are drawn from such results. - See more at: http://www.geospatialworld.net/Paper/Technology/ArticleView.aspx? aid=1964#sthash.hWuu1929.dpuf