Advanced InSAR Techniques to Support Landslide Monitoring

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) uses satellite radar imagery to precisely measure ground deformation. TRE developed advanced techniques, \(\text {PSInSAR}^\mathrm{{TM}}\) and subsequently \(\text {SqueeSAR}^\mathrm{{TM}}\), as a standard monitoring tools in several applications: natural hazards, geothermal, oil and gas, mining, urban and infrastructures monitoring. Thanks to its capability in detecting millimetre level displacements over long periods and large areas, \(\text {SqueeSAR}^\mathrm{{TM}}\) analysis can be considered complementary to conventional geological and geomorphological studies in landslide detection and monitoring. Several Italian Regions were studied with \(\text {SqueeSAR}^\mathrm{{TM}}\) in order to detect and monitor slope instability phenomena. One of the most successfully application was carried out on the whole Valle d’Aosta Region (NW Italy) area. The increasing interest of Italian authorities in the application of \(\text {SqueeSAR}^\mathrm{{TM}}\) resulted in a national project, Piano Straordinario di Telerilevamento (PST), founded by the Ministry of the Environment. The aim of the project was to create the first national-scale database of interferometric information to map unstable areas. \(\text {SqueeSAR}^\mathrm{{TM}}\) analysis is particularly suitable for the study of Deep-seated Gravitational Slope Deformations (DGSD), characterized by large areal extent and surface displacement rate is very low, ranging from few millimeters to tens of millimeters per year.