Investigating Subsidence in the Bursa Plain, Turkey, Using Ascending and Descending Sentinel-1 Satellite Data

Abstract

We characterize and monitor subsidence of the Bursa Plain (southern Marmara region of Turkey), which has been interpreted as resulting from tectonic motions in the region. We quantify the subsidence using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) time-series analysis. The Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers InSAR package (StaMPS) is employed to process series of Sentinel 1 A-B radar images acquired between 2014 and 2017 along both ascending and descending orbits. The vertical velocity field obtained after decomposition of line-of-sight velocity fields on the two tracks reveals that the Bursa plain is subsiding at rates up to 25 mm/yr. The most prominent subsidence signal in the basin forms an east-west elongated ellipse of deformation in the east, and is bounded by a Quaternary alluvial plain undergoing average vertical subsidence at ~10 mm/yr. Another localized subsidence signal is located 5 km north of the city, following the Bursa alluvial fan, and is subsiding at velocities up to 25 mm/yr. The comparison between temporal variations of the subsiding surface displacements and variations of the water pressure head in the aquifer allows estimation of the compressibility of the aquifer, α . It falls in the range of 0.5 × 10 − 6 − 2 × 10 − 6 Pa−1, which corresponds to typical values for clay and sand sediments. We find a clear correlation between subsidence patterns and the lithology, suggesting a strong lithological control over subsidence. In addition, the maximum rate of ground subsidence occurs where agricultural activity relies on groundwater exploitation. The InSAR time series within the observation period is well correlated with changes in the depth of the ground water. These observations indicate that the recent acceleration of subsidence is mainly due to anthropogenic activities rather than tectonic motion.

Ground Deformation and Its Causes in Abbottabad City, Pakistan from Sentinel-1A Data and MT-InSAR

“…It can be seen in Figure 5 that the results extracted from both orbits' data exhibit similar spatial patterns. These similar patterns represent the presence of dominant vertical deformation and negligible horizontal velocity [42].…”

“…It can be seen in Figure 5 that the results extracted from both orbits' data exhibit similar spatial patterns. These similar patterns represent the presence of dominant vertical deformation and negligible horizontal velocity [42]. even subsidence pattern and the most prominent pattern with values from −6.5 to −2 cm/year was identified along the old Karakoram highway (locally known as road Nowshera-Abbottabad road, N35), which is settled in the foothills of the Himalayas, including the cantonment area of the city.…”

Detecting Displacements Within Archaeological Sites in Cyprus After a 5.6 Magnitude Scale Earthquake Event Through the Hybrid Pluggable Processing Pipeline (HyP3) Cloud-Based System and Sentinel-1 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) Analysis

“…A common way to examine the ascending and descending deformation analysis products is a cross-comparison between them [49]. A cross-comparison of the InSAR measurements can quantitatively inform us about the consistency of measurements between these two products.…”

Determination of Land Subsidence Caused by Land-Use Changing in Palembang City using Remote Sensing Data

“…The land subsidence is also determined by gentle and progressive settlement or as a result of the sudden sinking of the ground surface [2]. The ground subsidence can be a localised collapse or regional scale sinking [3]. Study on correlation of land development, urban settlement growth to land subsidence was conducted in several cities around the world (i.e.…”

“…Traditionally, monitoring land subsidence was conducted by using an optical levelling survey and Global Positioning System (GPS) survey [2,3,10]. The techniques measure the elevation of benchmark point (TBM) within local and regional networks.…”