Earthquake-induced landslide monitoring and survey by means of InSAR

Abstract

This study uses interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques to identify and track earthquake-induced landslides as well as lands prone to landslides, by detecting deformations in areas struck by earthquakes. The pilot study area investigates the Mila region in Algeria, which suffered significant landslides and structural damage (earthquake: Mw 5, 7 August 2020). DInSAR analysis shows normal interferograms with small fringes. The coherence change detection (CCD) and DInSAR analysis were able to identify many landslides and ground deformations also confirmed by Sentinel-2 optical images and field inspection. The most important displacement (2.5 m), located in the Kherba neighborhood, caused severe damage to dwellings. It is worth notice that CCD and DInSAR are very useful since they were also able to identify ground cracks surrounding a large zone (3.94 km2 area) in Grarem City, whereas the Sentinel-2 optical images could not detect them. Although displacement time-series analysis of 224 interferograms (April 2015 to September 2020) performed using LiCSBAS did not detect any pre-event geotechnical precursors, the post-event analysis shows a 110 mm yr−1 subsidence velocity in the back hillside of Kherba.