The main aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data in monitoring scarcely urbanized slopes affected by slow-moving instabilities. To this end, geological and geomorphological surveys were carried out, satellite SAR data were processed and a GPS network system was installed. The study area, named Rovegliana, is located in the North-Eastern sector of the Italian pre-Alps. Rovegliana slopes are covered by eluvial, colluvial and landslide debris deposits which are mainly affected by superficial phenomena such as creep and soil slips. In situ surveys and Advanced Differential SAR Interferometry (A-DInSAR) processing of ERS, ENVISAT and COSMO Sky-MED SAR data pointed out that the instabilities are active with constant velocities up to 10 mm/year. Only the central and eastern sectors of the area were subjected to an acceleration after an exceptional rainfall event occurred in November 2010. GPS monitoring started in October 2015 and has been implemented through four campaigns made up of high precision geodetic measures of possible soil deformations of 22 vertices of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) static network. These vertices have been connected by a network to obtain a robust system. Comparing results from historical interferometric data, GPS measurements and interferometry processing of Sentinel SAR data acquired in the period 2015–2016, make it possible to verify if Sentinel data, characterized by short revisiting time, can be used as useful tool to define the spatio-temporal evolution of the recorded instabilities, overcoming the limits of applying interferometric techniques caused by temporal decorrelation due to the presence of vegetation cover, increasing the possibility to obtain significant information about landslide dynamics from SAR data. Moreover, we expect that the high number of planned acquisitions will improve the accuracy of deformation measurements.
Testing Sentinel-1A data in landslide monitoring: A case study from North-Eastern Italian Pre-Alps
FLORIS, MARIO;ACHILLI, VLADIMIRO;FABRIS, MASSIMO;MENIN, ANDREA;Monego, Michele
2017
Abstract
The main aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data in monitoring scarcely urbanized slopes affected by slow-moving instabilities. To this end, geological and geomorphological surveys were carried out, satellite SAR data were processed and a GPS network system was installed. The study area, named Rovegliana, is located in the North-Eastern sector of the Italian pre-Alps. Rovegliana slopes are covered by eluvial, colluvial and landslide debris deposits which are mainly affected by superficial phenomena such as creep and soil slips. In situ surveys and Advanced Differential SAR Interferometry (A-DInSAR) processing of ERS, ENVISAT and COSMO Sky-MED SAR data pointed out that the instabilities are active with constant velocities up to 10 mm/year. Only the central and eastern sectors of the area were subjected to an acceleration after an exceptional rainfall event occurred in November 2010. GPS monitoring started in October 2015 and has been implemented through four campaigns made up of high precision geodetic measures of possible soil deformations of 22 vertices of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) static network. These vertices have been connected by a network to obtain a robust system. Comparing results from historical interferometric data, GPS measurements and interferometry processing of Sentinel SAR data acquired in the period 2015–2016, make it possible to verify if Sentinel data, characterized by short revisiting time, can be used as useful tool to define the spatio-temporal evolution of the recorded instabilities, overcoming the limits of applying interferometric techniques caused by temporal decorrelation due to the presence of vegetation cover, increasing the possibility to obtain significant information about landslide dynamics from SAR data. Moreover, we expect that the high number of planned acquisitions will improve the accuracy of deformation measurements.
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