Infrastructure Ground Motion Screening

What this Actor does

Infrastructure Ground Motion Screening finds infrastructure near vertical ground-motion signals in Copernicus European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) data. Enter a city and search area, or an exact bounding box. The Actor returns a short list of nearby rail, bridge, warehouse, industrial, and commercial assets for review.

It is a desktop screening tool for geotechnical, civil, and infrastructure teams. Use it to decide where a site review, asset-owner check, or detailed monitoring may be warranted. It does not assess structural condition, predict failure, estimate damage, or provide safety, insurance, or valuation advice.

The current EGMS release covers 2020-2024. Treat the results as a historical baseline, not live monitoring.

How it works

The Actor resolves the selected location, retrieves EGMS L3 vertical data for the area, and filters points by vertical velocity. It then retrieves nearby OpenStreetMap infrastructure and assigns each filtered point to the nearest eligible asset within the selected proximity radius. This prevents one point from generating a row for every adjacent rail segment or building.

The default 100 m radius is intended for L3 screening. A result is a proximity candidate, not proof that the asset itself is moving. The dataset includes the association distance, confidence, motion value, and source links so the candidate can be checked quickly.

Run a screen

1. Select City or address and enter a city and country, such as Hannover, Germany. Use Custom bounding box only when you need exact coordinates.
2. Set the search area. Start with 9 km2. Larger searches can take longer because EGMS L3 data is distributed in large tiles.
3. Set the motion threshold. The default is 2 mm/year. Raise it to limit results to stronger signals.
4. Set infrastructure proximity. The default is 100 m.
5. Run the Actor and review the matched-asset dataset and OUTPUT summary.

For a custom bounding box, enter minLongitude, minLatitude, maxLongitude, and maxLatitude as WGS84 coordinates. The maximum supported area is 650 km2.

Input example

{
  "locationMode": "city",
  "city": "Hannover, Germany",
  "areaKm2": 9,
  "motionThresholdMmYear": 2,
  "assetSearchBufferMeters": 100
}

Results

Each matched_asset item contains the asset type, its OpenStreetMap reference, a Google Maps link, the EGMS motion evidence, and the proximity evidence. OpenStreetMap address, operator, website, and reference values appear only when they are mapped for that asset.

{
  "record_type": "matched_asset",
  "asset_id": "osm-way-667756286",
  "asset": {
    "name": "Unnamed railway",
    "asset_type": "railway",
    "google_maps_url": "https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=52.358993,9.722131",
    "operator": "infra Infrastrukturgesellschaft Region Hannover"
  },
  "motion": {
    "measurement_points": 1,
    "median_velocity_mm_year": -2.2
  },
  "matching": {
    "match_method": "distance_buffer",
    "median_distance_meters": 32.2,
    "asset_match_confidence": 0.502
  },
  "screening_priority": "WATCH"
}

WATCH items are preliminary. In particular, a one-point result or a distance_buffer match needs corroboration before it is used to prioritize engineering work.

Velocity values follow the EGMS ORTHO-UP convention. Review the sign and magnitude together with the local context.

The OUTPUT record reports the run status, selected area, location, EGMS and OpenStreetMap counts, timings, and memory use. A completed run can return:

• NO_OSM_ASSETS: no selected OpenStreetMap infrastructure was found.
• NO_EGMS_DATA: no EGMS product was available for the area and release.
• NO_SIGNIFICANT_MOTION: no EGMS point met the motion threshold.
• NO_ASSET_POINT_ASSOCIATIONS: filtered points were not within the selected proximity radius of an eligible asset.

Data and access

The Actor uses EGMS L3 vertical ORTHO-UP data for its standard screen. L3 does not include temporal coherence, so its stated quality basis is velocity uncertainty. The Actor uses OpenStreetMap data to identify infrastructure and link each result to the mapped object.

No Copernicus API credentials are required from the user. EGMS access is handled by the Actor.

Results use Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information and OpenStreetMap data. Copernicus data is provided under the applicable Copernicus data policy. OpenStreetMap data is available under the Open Database License.

City searches use OpenStreetMap Nominatim. Include a country in the city input to avoid ambiguous matches. High-volume deployments should use a Nominatim-compatible geocoder through GEOCODER_URL.

The Actor charges one screen-completed event after it has processed EGMS data. A completed screen can have no asset matches. Check the Actor's Pricing tab before running it; pricing is configured in Apify and may change.

FAQ

Does a result mean the asset has a ground-motion problem?

No. It means a filtered EGMS point was nearest to that selected OpenStreetMap asset within the chosen screening radius. Review the motion value, point count, match method, association distance, and local context.

Why is the dataset empty?

Read the OUTPUT status. Try a larger area, a lower motion threshold, or a wider proximity radius only when that radius still makes sense for the asset type and screening purpose.

Why is the result from 2024 rather than today?

EGMS is a published ground-motion product, not a live feed. This Actor currently uses the 2020-2024 release. Recent SAR monitoring needs a separate processing or provider workflow.

Why does the log say the EGMS cache is disabled?

WARN Cache disabled because this run cannot create the egms-asset-match-egms-cache key-value store. means the run does not have permission to create the optional shared cache. The Actor continues by downloading the required EGMS data for that run, so the warning does not affect the result. Repeated runs may take longer because they cannot reuse cached data.

Can I use my own asset inventory?

Not in version 1.0. The Actor currently uses OpenStreetMap infrastructure only.

Support and feedback

For questions, support, or product ideas, email solutionssmart2026@gmail.com. Please leave an Apify Store review after you have used the Actor, and share feedback on the results, inputs, or workflow.