Detailed rockslide mapping in northern Norway with small baseline and persistent scatterer interferometric SAR time series methods

Abstract

Rockslides have a high socioeconomic and environmental importance in many countries. Norway is particularly susceptible to large rockslides due to its many fjords and steep mountains. One of the most dangerous hazards related with rock slope failures are tsunamis that can lead to large loss of life. It is therefore very important to systematically identify potential unstable rock slopes. Traditional landslide monitoring techniques are expensive and time consuming. Differential satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is an invaluable tool for land displacement monitoring. Improved access to time series of satellite data has led to the development of several innovative multitemporal algorithms. Small baseline (SB) methods are based on combining and inverting a set of unwrapped interferograms that are computed with a small perpendicular baseline in order to reduce spatial phase decorrelation. Another well proven technique is the persistent scatterer interferometric method (PSI) that is based on analysis of persistent point targets. In this paper, we apply both approaches to study several rockslide sites in Troms County in the far north of Norway. Moreover, we take the opportunity to address the difference and similarities between the SB and the PSI multitemporal InSAR methods for displacement studies in rural terrain.