Abstract
Multi-temporal InSAR (MT-InSAR) methods have been widely used in remote sensing monitoring of ground subsidence, which occurs at many places around the world. Land subsidence, caused by excessive extraction of groundwater, has always been a problem to be solved in Tianjin, China. Although the subsidence in the urban area has been controlled at a low rate, the subsidence issue has not been effectively solved in the suburban area recently, which should be paid much attention. This paper aims to present two multi-temporal differential interferometry techniques, persistent scatterer (PS) and small baseline subset (SBAS), for monitoring the latest surface subsidence in a Tianjin study area on the basis of 20 Sentinel-1A images obtained from March 2017 to March 2019. Our research showed that the average velocity map obtained from the SBAS method closely followed the outcomes of the PS technique from the perspective of identifying similar subsidence patterns. Subsidence rate gradually increased from the urban area of Tianjin to the suburbs and high subsidence zones were mainly distributed at the junction of the Wuqing, Xiqing and Beichen districts. In the past two years, the annual average subsidence rate in the high settlement area mostly exceeded −50 mm/year, which caused serious damage to local infrastructures. Besides, high-resolution remote sensing images combined with field investigations further verified the successful application of MT-InSAR technology in Tianjin’s subsidence monitoring. Effective ground subsidence control measures need to be taken as soon as possible to prevent the situation from getting worse.
Highlights
Land subsidence is a geological hazard due to natural and human factors [1,2], such as settlement of loose sediments, compression of unconsolidated strata and overexploitation of underground resources.It is usually a slow process and not easy to be noticed in the early stage
The extension of the total area affected by high subsidence is 40.84 km2 according to persistent scatterer (PS) analysis and 72.13 km2 according to small baseline subset (SBAS) analysis (Figure 4a,b)
This paper proves that recently the ground subsidence velocity in most of the urban area of Tianjin is under the threshold of −10 mm/year, while there are still obvious serious settlement funnels in the suburban area
Summary
Land subsidence is a geological hazard due to natural and human factors [1,2], such as settlement of loose sediments, compression of unconsolidated strata and overexploitation of underground resources. It is usually a slow process and not easy to be noticed in the early stage. Traditional land subsidence monitoring methods include global navigation satellite system (GNSS), GPS, leveling, extensometer and geophysical investigation [10].
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