Abstract
Over the past two decades, the Leizhou Peninsula has suffered from many geological hazards and great property losses caused by land subsidence. However, the absence of a deformation map of the whole peninsula has impeded the government in making the necessary decisions concerning hazard prevention and mitigation. This study aims to provide the evolution of land deformation (subsidence and uplift) in the whole peninsula from 1992 to 2010. A modified stacking procedure is proposed to map the surface deformation with JERS, ENVISAT, and ALOS1 images. The map shows that the land subsidence mainly occurs along the coastline with a maximum velocity of 32 mm/year and in a wide range of inland arable lands with a velocity between 10 and 19 mm/year. Our study suggests that there is a direct correlation between the subsidence and the surface geology. Besides, the observed subsidence in urban areas, caused by groundwater overexploitation for domestic and industrial use, is moving from urban areas to suburban areas. In nonurban areas, groundwater extraction for aquaculture and arable land irrigation are the main reason for land subsidence, which accelerates saltwater intrusion and coastline erosion if regular surface deformation measurements and appropriate management measures are not taken.
Highlights
The Leizhou Peninsula (LZP), one of the three largest peninsulas in China, is located in the southwest of Guangdong province, China, covering an area of 8500 km2 [1]
Large-scale land subsidence measurement is still scarce in the LZP apart from a few leveling measurements carried out in the urban area of Zhanjiang city in 1984, 1989, 1999, and 2001, whose results indicated that the surface subsidence increased by >10 mm/year [2,4]
A surface deformation map presenting the temporal-spatial pattern of land subsidence of the whole peninsula is urgently needed to help the government make the right decisions in geological disaster prevention and mitigation, as well as to understand the mechanism of land subsidence caused by over-pumping groundwater
Summary
The Leizhou Peninsula (LZP), one of the three largest peninsulas in China, is located in the southwest of Guangdong province, China, covering an area of 8500 km2 [1] (see Figure 1). It plays an important role in the economic development of Guangdong province with its considerable agriculture contributions. Over the past two decades the fast growing economy has accelerated groundwater over-pumping, causing large scale land subsidence and other geological hazards. Large-scale land subsidence measurement is still scarce in the LZP apart from a few leveling measurements carried out in the urban area of Zhanjiang city in 1984, 1989, 1999, and 2001, whose results indicated that the surface subsidence increased by >10 mm/year [2,4].
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