InSAR Monitoring of Italian Coastline Revealing Natural and Anthropogenic Ground Deformation Phenomena and Future Perspectives

Marco Polcari,Cristiano Tolomei,Christian Bignami,Antonio Montuori,Salvatore Stramondo,Giuseppe Pezzo,Fawzi Doumaz,Sergio Falcone,Carmelo La Piana,Stefano Salvi,Matteo Albano

doi:10.3390/su10093152

Abstract

In this work, we use X and C-band SAR data provided by the COSMO-SkyMed and ENVISAT missions to detect and measure some ground deformation phenomena along six coastal areas of Italy. In particular, we exploit multi-temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), i.e., small baseline subsets (SBAS) and interferometric point target analysis (IPTA) methods, to retrieve the deformation rate maps and time series for each investigated area. Multi-temporal InSAR analysis revealed local subsidence and uplifting effects in Ravenna Coastal Areas, Fiumicino, Campi Flegrei, Sibari Plain, Augusta Bay, and Taranto Gulf. Our work is meant as a demonstrator to show how InSAR-based analysis can provide a detailed understanding of the coastal hazards. Such analysis also opens up new monitoring scenarios such as the possibility of designing a near real-time surveillance service based on Sentinel-1 SAR data.

Highlights

The Italian peninsula together with Sicily, Sardinia, and several minor islands, is one of the most representative European coastal countries with a coastline of more than 7000 km, which make it the sixth European region regarding coast extension
We show some local deformation phenomena detected by interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) analysis in several Italian coastal areas effectively covered by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data
They are the coastal zones that include and surround Ravenna, Fiumicino, Campi Flegrei, Sibari, Augusta, and Taranto (Figure 2Su)s.taWinaebiluitsye20d18C, 1-0b, xaFnOdREPENERVRISEVAIETWdata provided by the European Space Agency (ESA)4 aonf d14 X-band data acquired by the CSK missions of ASI

Summary

Introduction

The Italian peninsula together with Sicily, Sardinia, and several minor islands, is one of the most representative European coastal countries with a coastline of more than 7000 km, which make it the sixth European region regarding coast extension. From north to south, the Italian coastline is mostly affected by several natural and anthropogenic ground deformation phenomena [1,2,3,4], which can severely impact the environment, stability of the infrastructure, and safety of the people. More in-depth activities contribute to coastal deformation with rates up to a few mm/year [2,11] Several phenomena such as the inundation of lowlands, coastal erosions, the salinization of aquifers, storms, flooding, and sea level rise may contribute to increasing the ground deformation hazard along coastal areas [5]. In order to have a complete understanding of the coastal hazards, a proper knowledge of such phenomena, as well as investigating their potential relationship with the sea-level rise effect, is needed [1,2,5]

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Discussion

Conclusion