Preliminary study of the surface ground displacements in the Crati Valley (Calabria) by means of InSAR data

Giuseppe Cianflone (*), Cristiano Tolomei (**), Carlo Alberto Brunori (**) & Rocco Dominici (*)
(*) Dipartimento di Biologia, Ecologia e Scienze della Terra, Università della Calabria, cubo 15B, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende (Cs). E-mail: giuseppe.cianflone@unical.it (**) Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via di Vigna Murata 605, 00143 Roma.

We applied the multi-temporal Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) InSAR technique to investigate the ground displacements in the Crati Valley (Calabria, Southern Italy). The SBAS technique application to image data sets of the European Space Agency (ESA) Envisat satellite from 2003 to 2010, allowed us to obtain the displacement time series and the mean ground velocity map of the Crati Valley. We observed the existence of vertical displacements with velocity up to ~ -7 mm/yr in the central sector of the valley and the prevalence of horizontal deformation ranging from ~ -10 (eastward displacement) to ~10 mm/yr (westward displacement) along its sides. The subsidence processes have been correlated to tectonics and to the compaction of the recent sedimentary infilling of the valley with locally contribution due to the diffuse and fast urbanization. Along East and West sides the widespread landslides are considered the main responsible of the horizontal displacements.

SBAS-InSAR, Crati Valley, Subsidence, Landslides, Human activities