Land subsidence associated with overexploitation of aquifers is a hazard that commonly affects large areas worldwide. The Lorca area, located in southeast Spain, has undergone one of the highest subsidence rates in Europe as a direct consequence of long-term aquifer exploitation. Previous studies carried out on the region assumed that the ground deformation retrieved from satellite radar interferometry corresponds only to vertical displacement. Here we report, for the first time, the two- and three-dimensional displacement field over the study area using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from Sentinel-1A images and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations. By modeling this displacement, we provide new insights on the spatial and temporal evolution of the subsidence processes and on the main governing mechanisms. Additionally, we also demonstrate the importance of knowing both the vertical and horizontal components of the displacement to properly characterize similar hazards. Based on these results, we propose some general guidelines for the sustainable management and monitoring of land subsidence related to anthropogenic activities.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) has shown unprecedented advantages to sense Soil Moisture Content (SMC) with high spatial and temporal coverage, low cost, and under all-weather conditions. However, implementing an appropriated physical basis to estimate SMC from GNSS-R is still a challenge, while previous solutions were only based on direct comparisons, statistical regressions, or time-series analyses between GNSS-R observables and external SMC products. In this paper, we attempt to retrieve SMC from GNSS-R by estimating the dielectric permittivity from Fresnel reflection coefficients. We employ Cyclone GNSS (CYGNSS) data and effectively account for the effects of bare soil roughness (BSR) and vegetation optical depth by employing ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellites 2) and/or SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) products. The tests carried out with ICESat-2 BSR data have shown the high sensitivity in SMC retrieval to high BSR values, due to the high sensitivity of ICESat-2 to land surface microrelief. Our GNSS-R SMC estimates are validated by SMAP SMC products and the results provide an R-square of 0.6, Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of 0.05, and a zero p-value, for the 4568 test points evaluated at the eastern region of China during April 2019. The achieved results demonstrate the optimal capability and potential of this new method for converting reflectivity measurements from GNSS-R into Land Surface SMC estimates.

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Landcover is subject to continuous changes on a wide variety of temporal and spatial scales. Those changes produce significant effects in human and natural activities. Maintaining an updated spatial database with the occurred changes allows a better monitoring of the Earth’s resources and management of the environment. Change detection (CD) techniques using images from different sensors, such as satellite imagery, aerial photographs, etc., have proven to be suitable and secure data sources from which updated information can be extracted efficiently, so that changes can also be inventoried and monitored. In this paper, a multisource CD methodology for multiresolution datasets is applied. First, different change indices are processed, then different thresholding algorithms for change/no_change are applied to these indices in order to better estimate the statistical parameters of these categories, finally the indices are integrated into a change detection multisource fusion process, which allows generating a single CD result from several combination of indices. This methodology has been applied to datasets with different spectral and spatial resolution properties. Then, the obtained results are evaluated by means of a quality control analysis, as well as with complementary graphical representations. The suggested methodology has also been proved efficiently for identifying the change detection index with the higher contribution.