Landslide inventory updating by means of Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI): the Setta basin (Italy) case study

Abstract

This paper illustrates the contribution of Persistent Scatterer SAR Interferometry (PSInSAR) technique to landslide detection, using interferometric data acquired in C-band by European remote-sensing satellite (ERS) 1/2 and environmental satellite (ENVISAT) satellites. The main purpose is to update a pre-existing landslide inventory map, by changing or confirming the landslide geometry and state of activity and eventually, identifying new phenomena.This work presents an application of satellite remote sensing to analyse ground displacement movements in the Setta basin, located on the northern Appennine (Bologna province, Italy) and extended up 268 km 2 .The proposed methodology, resting upon pre-existing works already consolidated in the scientific community, combines interferometric measures with aerial imagery and other auxiliary data, in order to detect landslide indicators, finally validated with field surveys. The use of an activity matrix allows the identification of the state of activity of landslide phenomena with respect to the velocity of the radar displacement rates. Field validations are carried out in the areas that are more relevant because of the highest ground velocities and the presence of structures extensively affected by ground movements.The final updated landslide database of the Setta basin, based on Persistent Scatterer Interferometry analysis and in situ checks, consists of 1550 landslides, 236 of which have persistent scatterer information.

Factors determining subsidence in urbanized floodplains: evidence from MT‐InSAR in Seville (southern Spain)

“…The standard deviation of the mean LOS velocity is estimated per PS point applying a Montecarlo approach to each time series. A common value considered in literature as the stability threshold, that is, the tolerance that classifies a PS as unstable for this type of C-band radar data is around ±1.5-2 mm/yr (Meisina et al, 2008;Cigna et al, 2014;Del Ventisette et al, 2014;Notti et al, 2014;Ciampalini et al, 2015;Frangioni et al, 2015;Novellino, 2015) even ±1 mm/yr (Boni et al, 2015). In our case, we also assume this stability threshold on the basis of our statistical analysis.…”

Evidence of Instability in Previously-Mapped Landslides as Measured Using GPS, Optical, and SAR Data between 2007 and 2017: A Case Study in the Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex, California

“…Coherent points, known as persistent scatterers (PS), are identified in every image to produce a point cloud, and each PS within the point cloud includes enough data to create a displacement-time series. PSI has been widely used for long-term monitoring of dynamic processes, with many recent studies focusing on landslides [36,52,[81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91].…”

Preface to the special issue: the role of geomatics in hydrogeological risk

“…Radar displacement rates also allowed to monitor the movement of landslides at large scales in Frangioni et al (2014). ENVISAT was used in this case study to support updating the landslide inventories in a specific basin where more than 200 areas were monitored, thanks to PS interferometry.…”

“…Practically, most modern technologies of geomatic surveying are touched upon in this special issue, i.e. photogrammetry (Borgogno Mondino 2014;Scaioni et al 2014), structure from motion (Forlani et al 2013), optical remote sensing (Franci et al 2014), laser scanning (Barbarella et al 2013), global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) (Cina & Piras 2014), synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (Frangioni et al 2014;Nascetti et al 2014;Vittuari et al 2014) and geographic information systems (GISs) as decision support using advanced models (Cencetti et al 2014;Federici et al 2014). A digital terrain model (DTM) is fundamental to successive analysis; Casella and Franzini (2014) have taken the vertical information and investigated, respectively, on high-resolution DTM accuracy and the dynamic aspect (movement) of the vertical component of the vertical component of the DTMs.…”