Abstract
Deformations monitoring in airport runways and the surrounding areas is crucial, especially in cases of low-bearing capacity subgrades, such as the clayey subgrade soils. An effective monitoring of the infrastructure asset allows to secure the highest necessary standards in terms of the operational and safety requirements. Amongst the emerging remote sensing techniques for transport infrastructures monitoring, the Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) technique has proven effective for the evaluation of the ground deformations. However, its use for certain demanding applications, such as the assessment of millimetric differential deformations in airport runways, is still considered as an open issue for future developments. In this study, a time-series analysis of COSMO–SkyMed satellite images acquired from January 2015 to April 2019 is carried out by employing the PSI technique. The aim is to retrieve the mean deformation velocity and time series of the surface deformations occurring in airport runways. The technique is applied to Runway 3 at the “Leonardo da Vinci” International Airport in Rome, Italy. The proposed PSI technique is then validated by way of comparison with the deformation outcomes obtained on the runway by traditional topographic levelling over the same time span. The results of this study clearly demonstrate the efficiency and the accuracy of the applied PSI technique for the assessment of deformations in airport runways.
Highlights
Runways are central elements in airport infrastructures, as they are mostly dedicated to the two fundamental and most critical manoeuvres of taking-off and landing of the aircrafts
This work demonstrates the applicability of the high-resolution X-band COSMO–SkyMed mission data and the Persistent Scatters Interferometry (PSI) technique in monitoring the deformations occurring on airport runways
A time-series analysis of a set of satellite images acquired from January 2015 to April 2019 is carried out by employing the Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) technique
Summary
Runways are central elements in airport infrastructures, as they are mostly dedicated to the two fundamental and most critical manoeuvres of taking-off and landing of the aircrafts. The provision of proper design methods for runways is crucial to minimise future maintenance and rehabilitation of the infrastructure, this can be compromised by other critical factors, such as construction site related issues (e.g., geotechnical instability of the subgrade) or the non-linear action of different heavy loads over the infrastructure life cycle The occurrence of these events requires a dedicated and deep monitoring of differential settlements and deformations of the surface, in order to plan targeted interventions on time [3,4] and comply with budget constraints [5]. Satellite-based techniques are gaining momentum for the monitoring of transport infrastructures One of their major advantages is on the fact that measurements of targets can be repeated over an investigated area, with a fixed revisiting time that is related to the orbit of the satellite. Results of the InSAR acquisitions and processing are compared to the deformations obtained on the runway by traditional topographic levelling over the same time span
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
