Land subsidence investigated through Persistent Scatterer Interferometry technique: the case study of Sibari Plain (Italy)

Silvia Bianchini (a) & Sandro Moretti (a)
(a) Department of Earth Sciences, University of Firenze, Via La Pira 4, 50121, Firenze, Italy. E-mail: silvia.bianchini@unifi.it

Land subsidence is defined as the lowering of ground surface that can be caused by both natural and anthropogenic factors such as the natural compaction of sediments and the groundwater over-pumping. This work aims at investigating recent subsidence in the Sibari plain located in Calabria Region (Italy) by means of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Interferometry technique. In particular, PSI (Persistent Scatterer Interferometry) data acquired by different satellite sensors and spanning the period 1992-2011 were exploited for detecting the phenomenon in the area. In this study, implementations of PSI data and the PS-Time software were used respectively to map the spatial distribution of terrain deformation rates and to analyze the temporal evolution patterns of the displacements. The results demonstrated that recent subsiding movements are mostly due to human activities, as they are only recorded in site-specific urban areas. Moreover, the detailed PS Time Series analysis highlighted that, in these areas, subsidence has positively decreased or stabilized from the second semester of the year 2010.

Subsidence, Sibari plain, Persistent Scatterer Interferometry, PS time series.