Land subsidence measurement with SAR interferometric data

The paper focuses on the measurement of land subsidence and, more generally, of land deformation phenomena using the differential interferometric SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) technique (DInSAR). The paper begins with a concise description of the properties of the differential interferometric phase, which represents the information source for the estimation of the terrain deformation phenomena. Then it discusses some characteristics of the DInSAR procedure implemented by the authors. In particular, the interferometric SAR processing and a least squares adjustment procedure to estimate the terrain deformation are described. The second part of the paper illustrates two applications of the proposed procedure, which have been tested in two test sides located in Catalonia (Spain). The first one is a screening analysis, whose main goal is the detection of unknown subsidence phenomena over large areas, based on a limited set of SAR images. The second one is a quantitative analysis of a urban subsidence of small spatial extent, which was based on two independent ascending and descending SAR datasets.