Abstract
Among different sets of constraints and hazards that have to be considered in the management of cities and land use, land surface subsidence is one of the important issues that can lead to many problems, and its economic consequences cannot be ignored. In this study, the ground surface deformation of Gävle city in Sweden is investigated using the Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) technique as well as analyzing the historical leveling data. The PSI technique is used to map the location of hazard zones and their ongoing subsidence rate. Two ascending and descending Sentinel-1 datasets, collected between January 2015 and May 2020, covering the Gävle city, were processed and analyzed. In addition, a long record of a leveling dataset, covering the period from 1974 to 2019, was used to detect the rate of subsidence in some locations which were not reported before. Our PSI analysis reveals that the center of Gävle is relatively stable with minor deformation ranged between −2 ± 0.5 mm/yr to +2 ± 0.5 mm/yr in vertical and east–west components. However, the land surface toward the northeast of the city is relatively subsiding with a higher annual rate of up to −6 ± 0.46 mm/yr. The comparison at sparse locations shows a close agreement between the subsidence rates obtained from precise leveling and PSI results. The regional quaternary deposits map was overlaid with PSI results and it shows the subsidence areas are mostly located in zones where the subsurface layer is marked by artificial fill materials. The knowledge of the spatio-temporal extents of land surface subsidence for undergoing urban areas can help to develop and establish models to mitigate hazards associated with such land settlement.
Highlights
The management of cities and land use are challenging activities, where different sets of constraints, hazards, and preventive decisions have to be considered
We report our results of the estimated land subsidence rate over the city of Gävle and the relation between the obtained Permanent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) results with the available leveling data and the geological information
The identified hazard zone Area-1, which is located toward the northeast of the city center, shows the maximum negative Line of Sight (LOS) movements in the city, based on the estimated permanent scatterers (PS) points in the area which reaches up to −6 mm/yr
Summary
The management of cities and land use are challenging activities, where different sets of constraints, hazards, and preventive decisions have to be considered. Knowledge of large-scale land surface subsidence could be an important factor in the long-term planning and managing of cities. Synthetic Aperture Radar interferometry (InSAR) technology has proved its capability in providing an accurate large cover land surface deformation monitoring information from SAR images [8,9,10], when compared for instance, with a traditional GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and repeated precise leveling methods. InSAR and its differential method (DInSAR) use the phase difference between radar images acquired at different times and geometries, and allow the generation of digital elevation models and measurements of the centimeter-scale earth surface movements [11,12,13]. The Small Baseline Subset (SBAS), which looks for a distributed scatterer within the resolution cell [17], while the Permanent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) looks for a point-like scatterer [13,18,19]
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