Hannover, 12.10.2020

Ground Motion Service Germany (BBD):
Updated version now online!

The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), has published an updated map view for the digital BodenBewegungsdienst Deutschland (BBD) on the Internet. The new web view now also takes into account the data for the period up to March of 2019.

The BBD is based on satellite data from the European Copernicus mission and is the result of a regular scan of the earth's surface from space. Referenced earth points are recorded with the help of satellite radar. The two Sentinel-1 satellites are the monitoring system. Every six days they measure the distance to millions of measuring points in Germany. In this way, ground motions can be recorded with millimeter precision. The information collected is visualized in a computationally intensive big data application. In this way, possible hazard from the underground can be quickly identified at a glance - a helpful service for the population and authorities.

The data of the web application are regularly updated. In the web view of the BBD, the colored points show the ground motions in Germany. Subsidence is shown in red and yellow, uplift in blue and purple. From the point of view of the online community, it should be noted that the majority of the area in Germany is shown in green - no danger! No significant movements were found in these areas.

Possible dangers have different causes. Motion of the subsurface can be the result of natural geological processes as well as the result of human interventions such as mining - with equally negative consequences, triggered by swelling rock formations, fluctuations in the groundwater level, landslides or soil compaction. E.g. the subsiding red area in the west is due to active open pit lignite mining accompanied by groundwater lowering. Heaving blue patches in the adjacent area are often related to mine wa-ter rise after the end of minig activities.

Additional Information:

Link to BodenBewegungsdienst Deutschland
https://bodenbewegungsdienst.bgr.de/mapapps/resources/apps/bbd/index.html?lang=de

More detailed explanations on the Ground Movement Service Germany
https://www.bgr.bund.de/EN/Themen/GG_Fernerkundung/BodenBewegungsdienst_Deutschland/bodenbewegungsdienst_deutschland_node_en.html

Technical contact person
Andre Kalia, email: Andre.Kalia@bgr.de, phone 0511 643 3056