The Bureya Landslide Recent Evolution According to Spaceborne SAR Interferometry Data

Abstract

The study presents the results of interferometric processing and analysis of ALOS-1/2 and Sentinel-1 SAR data acquired over the landslide territory of the Bureya river bank in 2006–2018. The novelty of the study is that, for the first time, the joint analysis of interferometric measurements of the landslide movement with meteorological information and time series of SRTM-X, ALOS-1, and TanDEM-X digital elevation models were performed. The results allowed us to make a conclusion that the Bureya landslide was evolving within the frame of the depression formed by a relict landslide which was stable at least at the beginning of the 21st century. The Bureya reservoir filling in 2003–2009 with a 60 m rise of the water and subsequent seasonal water level oscillations supposedly triggered the landslide activity. The landslide movement in the first decade may be characterized by a stable rate of movement all year around. A steady increase in precipitation level in the second decade, with heavy rainfalls in 2013, 2016, and 2018 led to a prominent acceleration of the landslide rate of movement, especially in warm seasons, with a final landslide in December 2018.

Keywords

• synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
• differential SAR interferometry
• digital elevation model (DEM)
• landslide
• TanDEM-X
• the Bureya river