Long-term monitoring of the impact of the impact of mining operations on the ground surface at the regional scale based on the InSAR-SBAS technique, the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (Poland). Case study.

Abstract

Underground mining activity in the region of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB) results in ground displacements scattered on a large area. Both the locations and the velocities of the displacements depend on many factors, such as the current location of the mining front, the mining depth and system, as well as geological conditions. Although SAR interferometry techniques allow the monitoring of such ground displacements, in a regional scale (as is the case of the USCB) SAR images must be appropriately processed (from a number of frames and swaths), and this is the problem addressed in this article. The implementation of algorithms for analyzing time series allows observations of displacements in both time and space. The authors also analyze the influence of mining operations on the road infrastructure and mining waste heaps located in the area and investigate the potential for the monitoring of secondary influence (due to induced seismic tremors). As a result of these investigations, the article presents the quality of the InSAR-SBAS data and the potential for their employment in the measurements.

An InSAR Deformation Phase Retrieval Method Combined with Reference Phase in Mining Areas

“…The reference phase of pixel i is φ i re f , and its expression is shown in (17). Assuming that there is a 10% error in the phase difference between adjacent pixels of the reference phase; then, the phase φ i+1 re f of pixel i + 1 can be represented by (18).…”

“…InSAR technology has found extensive application across diverse domains, including ground deformation, mining subsidence, seismic deformation, and volcanic surface deformation [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Following the pioneering work by Carnec et al [14] in 1996, who initiated the use of DInSAR technology for surface deformation monitoring in mining areas, InSAR technology has progressively achieved widespread adoption in the monitoring of mining subsidence, often yielding monitoring accuracies at the centimeter or even millimeter levels [10,11,[15][16][17][18][19]. Nevertheless, it is essential to acknowledge that InSAR technology exclusively captures the line of sight (LOS) deformation, which may not consistently mirror the true surface deformation [20,21].…”

Kalman filter-based integration of GNSS and InSAR observations for local nonlinear strong deformations

“…The proposed methodology is tested in an area of intensive underground works within the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB) in Southern Poland-one of the biggest deposits in Europe. The surface deformations in the area have been monitored in recent years by different geodetic approaches, revealing a complex regime of multiple dynamic subsidence patches with a substantial range of displacement values reaching in some cases 1.5 m per year and nonlinear character of the deformations, corresponding to the distributed underground mine works along the longwallsamong the others, Del Ventisette et al (2013), Przyłucka et al (2015), Ilieva et al (2019), Pawluszek-Filipiak andBorkowski (2020), Kopeć (2021). In Sect.…”

The Influence of Vibrations Induced by Blasting Works in an Open-Pit Mine and Seismic Events in an Underground Mine on Building Structures—A Case Study

“…Depending on the energy and hypocentral distance of the events that occur, different intensities of their impact on the surface terrain are observed. In the southern regions of Poland, events with energies E ≥ 10 4 J are recorded annually, ranging from 3.2 to 6.5 thousand, while strong mining tremors with energies E ≥ 10 5 J are recorded annually, ranging from 400 to 1000 [1,3,6].…”