Multi-Sensor InSAR Assessment of Ground Deformations around Lake Mead and Its Relation to Water Level Changes

Abstract

Changes in subsurface water resources might alter the surrounding ground by generating subsidence or uplift, depending on geological and hydrogeological site characteristics. Improved understanding of the relationships between surface water storage and ground deformation is important for design and maintenance of hydraulic facilities and ground stability. Here, we construct one of the longest series of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to date, over twenty-five years, to study the relationships between water level changes and ground surface deformation in the surroundings of Lake Mead, United States, and at the site of the Hoover Dam. We use the Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) and Permanent scatterer interferometry (PSI) techniques over 177 SAR data, encompassing different SAR sensors including ERS1/2, Envisat, ALOS (PALSAR), and Sentinel-1(S1). We perform a cross-sensor examination of the relationship between water level changes and ground displacement. We found a negative relationship between water level change and ground deformation around the reservoir that was consistent across all sensors. The negative relationship was evident from the long-term changes in water level and deformation occurring from 1995 to 2014, and also from the intra-annual oscillations of the later period, 2014 to 2019, both around the reservoir and at the dam. These results suggest an elastic response of the ground surface to changes in water storage in the reservoir, both at the dam site and around the reservoir. Our study illustrates how InSAR-derived ground deformations can be consistent in time across sensors, showing the potential of detecting longer time-series of ground deformation.

Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Key Water Quality Parameters in a Thermal Stratified Lake Ecosystem: The Case Study of Lake Mead

“…Lake Mead is made of four connected basins, namely, the Gregg, Temple, Virgin, and Boulder Basins. Flow into the lake comes from the Colorado River, the Las Vegas Wash (LVW), the Muddy River, and the Virgin River, as shown in Figure 1 [17,72,75]. Almost all the inflows (98%) into Lake Mead are said to originate from the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB), which is a conduit of a significant amount of possibly dissolved salts and sediment transport from the UCRB.…”

Recent advances and opportunities in data assimilation for physics-based hydrological modeling

“…Another interesting opportunity is given by processes linking changes in GW level to deformation of the Earth's crust and thus vertical land motion (Erban et al, 2014;Darvishi et al, 2021). As opposed to tectonic and sediment compaction, the vertical land motion associated with surface water or groundwater table changes can be visible at sub-annual temporal scales.…”

Determination of periodic deformation from InSAR results using the FFT time series analysis method in Gediz Graben

“…In recent years, surface deformations obtained from InSAR results have been tried to be associated with external forces that cause these deformations. (Hu et al 2018 ; Zheng et al 2018 ; Yang et al 2019 ; Imamoglu et al 2019 ; Shi et al 2020 ; Shahzad et al 2020 ; Darvishi et al 2021 ; Lei et al 2021 ; Bui et al 2021 ; Khoshlahjeh Azar et al 2021 ; Zhu et al 2022 ). In many of these studies, the relationship between InSAR surface movements and external force is presented only graphically, and the results are interpreted on these graphs (Zheng et al 2018 ; Shi et al 2020 ; Shahzad et al 2020 ; Lei et al 2021 ; Bui et al 2021 ).…”

“…In many of these studies, the relationship between InSAR surface movements and external force is presented only graphically, and the results are interpreted on these graphs (Zheng et al 2018 ; Shi et al 2020 ; Shahzad et al 2020 ; Lei et al 2021 ; Bui et al 2021 ). Alternatively, interpretations are made by calculating the correlation values between InSAR surface movements and the external force (Hu et al 2018 ; Imamoglu et al 2019 ; Darvishi et al 2021 ; Zhu et al 2022 ; Gezgin 2022 ). In all these studies, the LOS displacement values obtained using different software are presented graphically, or then the trend is determined by them using the regression method according to the linear model.…”