Nokia together with China Mobile has developed an IoT-based landslide monitoring and early warning system that has been deployed on one of the main highways in Guangxi province in southern China. 

Installed on the G75 Lanzhou–Haikou Expressway, one of the main highways in Guangxi province, the system has undergone extensive trials during which it prevented adverse impact to road users following a landslip in March 2019.

The system was developed for highways operations management company BGIGC Group. 

The system reports in real-time on changes in ground conditions and incline stability across highway slopes. On indications of a potential landslide, the system notifies highway management personnel by SMS or phone call, enabling appropriate action to be taken. A 4G eye-camera deployed on the highway slope simultaneously monitors landslide status for staff members.

Implementation of expressway slope safety evaluation, using monitoring and early warning systems, is one of the main objectives of China’s Ministry of Transport’s 13th Five Year Plan. 

The pilot project was listed among 30 excellent recommendation cases in 2019 by the Chinese Safety Committee of the Ministry of Transport.

The landslide monitoring and alarm system is based on the Nokia IMPACT IoT platform, comprising end-to-end Nokia hardware (Edge+ gateway and sensor nodes) and software.

The Nokia IMPACT IoT platform is designed to offer a secure, standards-based, simplified platform on which to build and scale new IoT services. The main components of the deployed solution include device management, data collection and analysis, rule engine, alarm management and statistical report & analytics.

Mr Yang Jirong, Enterprise Applications Expert at CMCC Guangxi, said: “Immediately upon deployment, the Nokia IoT solution demonstrated the value it can deliver. As a leading operator, we are highly committed to enhancing expressway safety for all road users with 5G technology and this project is a major step forward in that goal.”

Cheng Gang, Executive Vice President OF Nokia Shanghai Bell said: “This is an outstanding example of the benefits the Internet of Things can deliver to improve public safety. Nokia is working with the world’s leading manufacturers to develop high-precision sensors and algorithms for industrial applications that can deliver all the cost-competitive benefits of easily deployed, low-power, wide-area network technology.

“We’re pleased that our system showed its worth during trials. At Nokia we believe that with the advent of 5G we can apply our IoT, analytics and wireless expertise to even more solutions that enhance levels of citizen care, well-being and security.”