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GPS and GLONASS in Italy 
Giorgio Manzoni 
University of Trieste, Department of Civil Engineering, Piazzale europa 1,1-34100 Trieste. Italy 
manzoni@univ.trieste.it 
KEY WORDS: GNSS, GPS, GLONASS 
ABSTRACT: 
In 1987, Mariano Cunietti and Giorgio Folloni joined a group of Italian Universities in a national project financed by the Ministry of 
University. The aim was to purchase a couple of LI GPS receivers. This was the first geodetic national project with a large 
participation of researchers. A few months later Giuseppe Birardi joined them in the Brennero-Noto GPS geoidal transverse, by using 
two more, L1/L2, reveivers of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. In winter 1997 Alberto Gubellini nad Daniele Pospictchill used 
the same receivers in the first GPS campaign in Antartica. Since then almost all Italian geodesists have been involved in GPS theory 
and applications, including tectonic and soil movement monitoring, kinematic positioning in aerial photogrammetry, geoid 
ondulations modelling, road survey and traffic pollution control etc.. Outside the Universities, the Istituto Geografico Militare, IGM, 
has established the first order GPS network . Several professional surveyors currently use GPS in cartography. GPS is used for 
vehicles navigation and fleet management, in robbery alert, in conjunction with GSM. Applications are in progress for air traffic 
control, which requires the most reliable and advanced GPS and GLONASS methods. The use of real time Differential GPS is 
expected to increase with the future availabilty of the radiobroadcasted corrections also diffused by telecomunication satellites. 
1. MARIANO CUNIETTI and GIORGIO FOLLONI 
The histoiy of GPS in Italy is linked to Mariano Cunietti, 
Politecnic of Milan and Giorgio Folloni, University of 
Bologna. 
1986: Giorgio Folloni organized a GPS measurement in 
Castel dell' Alpi, performed by IGM, Italian Military 
Geographic Institute: IGM was already equipped with GPS 
receivers. 
1987: Mariano Cunietti and Giorgio Folloni promoted a 
request to the Ministry signed by many Universities for a 
couple of LI receivers (still working sometimes at the 
Universities of Pisa and Trieste). 
1988: Giuseppe Birardi, University of Rome, obtained from 
CNR, National Research Council, the funds for a couple of 
L1/L2 receivers. 
1988: Giuseppe Birardi planned the Nord-Sud geodetic 
GPS transverse from Brennero( Austrian border) to 
Noto(Sicily), with the cooperation of several Universities 
(Bari, Rome, Pisa, Trieste, Politecnic of Milan, Politecnic 
of Turin). 
1989: Politecnic of Milan repeated the northen part of the 
transverse with the cooperation of the same Universities. A 
similar transverse has been measured in Sardinia by the 
University and the Astronomical Observatory of Cagliari. 
The University of Bologna organized geodinamic GPS in 
Calabria and Tyrrenic islands. This University began GPS 
networks for monitoring subsidences in Bologna and other 
sites. 
Kinematic GPS tests have been performed since 1988 on 
terrestrial vehicles in airports, cable cabin, and aircrafts in 
cooperation among Politecnic of Turin, Politecnic of Milan, 
Universities of Trieste, Pisa, Ancona, Bologna and Rome and 
some photogrammetric companies: Alifoto, Turin, CGRA di 
Parma, Alenia di Roma. 
GPS measurements have been performed in Anctartica by 
Alberto Gubellini and Daniele Pospictchill, both from the 
University of Bologna, and in Himalaya by the Universities 
of Trieste and Padua. 
Mariano Cunietti, Giorgio Folloni, Giuseppe Birardi, 
Alberto Gubellini, Daniele Pospictchill are no more with 
us, and this paper is dedicated to them.