Localized Subsidence Zones in Gävle City Detected by Sentinel-1 PSI and Leveling Data

Abstract

Among different sets of constraints and hazards that have to be considered in the management of cities and land use, land surface subsidence is one of the important issues that can lead to many problems, and its economic consequences cannot be ignored. In this study, the ground surface deformation of Gävle city in Sweden is investigated using the Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) technique as well as analyzing the historical leveling data. The PSI technique is used to map the location of hazard zones and their ongoing subsidence rate. Two ascending and descending Sentinel-1 datasets, collected between January 2015 and May 2020, covering the Gävle city, were processed and analyzed. In addition, a long record of a leveling dataset, covering the period from 1974 to 2019, was used to detect the rate of subsidence in some locations which were not reported before. Our PSI analysis reveals that the center of Gävle is relatively stable with minor deformation ranged between −2 ± 0.5 mm/yr to +2 ± 0.5 mm/yr in vertical and east–west components. However, the land surface toward the northeast of the city is relatively subsiding with a higher annual rate of up to −6 ± 0.46 mm/yr. The comparison at sparse locations shows a close agreement between the subsidence rates obtained from precise leveling and PSI results. The regional quaternary deposits map was overlaid with PSI results and it shows the subsidence areas are mostly located in zones where the subsurface layer is marked by artificial fill materials. The knowledge of the spatio-temporal extents of land surface subsidence for undergoing urban areas can help to develop and establish models to mitigate hazards associated with such land settlement.

Monitoring of Land Subsidence in the Po River Delta (Northern Italy) Using Geodetic Networks

“…Land subsidence afflicts many areas of the world, in particular the ones located along transitional environments, such as coastal areas, deltas, wetlands, and lagoons, which are becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding, storm surges, salinization, and permanent inundation [6][7][8][9]. In these areas, subsidence can be usually considered as a consequence of a complex combination of natural and anthropogenic factors: the compaction of Holocene sediments, tectonic movements, sinkholes formation, volcanism, thawing permafrost, and the Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA), are generally considered as the main natural sources of land subsidence [10][11][12]; aquifer-system compaction associated with groundwater/oil/natural gas depletion and storage, drainage of organic soils, underground mining, hydro-compaction and stress given by new constructions, are the principal drivers of the anthropogenic land subsidence [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Moreover, the effects of climate change can dramatically increase the subsidence-related problems due to the rising of sea levels: the 2012 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, www.ipcc.ch, (accessed on 9 April 2021)) report, in fact, highlight an increasing occurrence of coastal and fluvial flooding, extreme weather events and sea-level rise as a consequence of climate change during the XXI century.…”

Editorial for Special Issue “Monitoring Land Subsidence Using Remote Sensing”

“…Gido et al [5] used the Permanent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) technique and historical leveling data to study the ground surface deformation of Gävle city in Sweden: two ascending and descending Sentinel-1A/B datasets (91 images in total), collected between January 2015 and May 2020, were processed and analyzed together with a long record of a leveling dataset (4 leveling lines), covering the period from 1974 to 2019. The authors performed the comparison between the obtained data at some locations showing a close agreement between the subsidence rates extracted from precise leveling and PSI.…”

“…Land subsidence can have both natural and anthropogenic origin: natural subsidence can be due to the compaction of lithological layers of the soil, the oxidation of peat, and geodynamic processes (e.g., tectonic-plate movements, volcanism [3]); anthropogenic subsidence derives mainly from the compaction of aquifers associated with groundwater/oil/natural gas extractions, drainage of organic soils, underground mining, hydrocompaction, sinkholes, stress provided by newly-built man-made structures, and thawing permafrost ( [4,5] and references therein); the combination and coexistence of these factors have a strong negative impact on the territory [1]. The effects of this global problem are more evident along transitional environments, such as coastal areas, deltas, wetlands, and lagoons, which are becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding, storm surges, salinization, and permanent inundation [6].…”

“…The PSI and SBAS approaches can be successfully applied over many different ground targets such as buildings, infrastructures, outcrops, base soils, low-vegetated area, etc. [11], and in several research fields, such as tectonics and volcanology [15], landslides [10,11,16], clay deposits deformations [5,17], and groundwater/oil/natural gas depletion [9,18].…”

Integrated analysis of Hashtgerd plain deformation, using Sentinel-1 SAR, geological and hydrological data

“…Land displacement is caused by a combination of anthropogenic and natural factors, which can result in loss of human life and economical resources. The subsidence of California in the United States 1 , Beijing in China 2 , Maceió in Brazil 3 , Karachi in Pakistan 4 , Uppsala and Gävle in Sweden 5 , 6 , and Mexico City in Mexico 7 are all well-known examples of such events triggered by groundwater abstraction, geological causes, and other human factors 8 – 10 . Many Iranian plains, including Hamadan 11 , Rafsanjan 12 , Kashan 13 , and Qazvin 14 plains, have experienced subsidence in last decades due to the over-extraction of groundwater 15 .…”