The deformation analysis of Wenjiagou giant landslide by the distributed scatterer interferometry technique

Abstract

After the deadly Ms 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake, the Wenjiagou landslide produced steep topography, a narrow gully and abundant loose sediments; these factors have contributed to the high debris flow risk in the Wenjiagou area during subsequent rainy seasons. At least five debris flows have occurred in the Wenjiagou area between September 24, 2008, and September 18, 2010, which resulted in seven casualties and an economic loss of approximately 446 million RMB. To reduce the risk of debris flows and landslides, the Wenjiagou Valley Debris Flow Control Project (WVDFCP), which cost over 2 billion RMB, was carried out and completed in 2011. The control measures of the project effectively reduced the scale and damage of the following debris flows. In this paper, the recent deformation of the giant landslide and its effect on the WVDFCP are evaluated by applying a time-series interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique based on distributed scatterers (DSs) to the Radardat-2 SAR data collected from June 2014 to September 2015. In addition, the experimental results show that most areas of the landslide are stable, with an average deformation rate of less than 5.0 mm/year. The results demonstrate that the control measures of the WVDFCP not only reduced the damage caused by the later debris flows but also contributed to the consolidation of the loose sediments in the Wenjiagou landslide area. The time-series InSAR technique based on the DSs of high-resolution SAR images is an important tool for deformation monitoring of earthquake-induced landslides.