Investigation of land subsidence in the Houston-Galveston region of Texas by using the Global Positioning System and interferometric synthetic aperture radar, 1993-2000

Abstract

Since the early 1900s, groundwater has been the primary source of municipal, industrial, and agricultural water supplies for the Houston-Galveston region, Texas. The region's combination of hydrogeology and nearly century-long use of groundwater has resulted in one of the largest areas of subsidence in the United States; by 1979, as much as 3 meters (m) of subsidence had occurred, and approximately 8,300 square kilometers of land had subsided more than 0.3 m. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, used interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data obtained for four overlapping scenes from European remote sensing satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2 to analyze land subsidence in the Houston-Galveston region of Texas. The InSAR data were processed into 27 interferograms that delineate and quantify land-subsidence patterns and magnitudes. Contemporaneous data from the Global Positioning System (GPS) were reprocessed by the National Geodetic Survey and analyzed to support, verify, and provide temporal resolution to the InSAR investigation. The interferograms show that the area of historical subsidence in downtown Houston along the Houston Ship Channel has stabilized and that recent subsidence occurs farther west and north of Galveston Bay. Three areas of recent subsidence were delineated along a broad arcuate (bowshaped) feature from Spring, Tex., southwest to Cypress, Tex., and south to Sugar Land, Tex., with subsidence rates ranging from 15 millimeters per year (mm/yr) to greater than 60 mm/ yr. Multiyear interferograms near Seabrook, Tex., within the historical subsidence area and nearby Galveston Bay, show several fringes of subsidence (approximately 85 millimeters from January 1996 to December 1997) in the area; however it is difficult to determine the subsidence magnitude near Seabrook because many of the InSAR fringes were truncated or ill-defined. Horizontal and vertical GPS data throughout the area support the InSAR measured subsidence rates and extent. The subsidence rates for a few GPS stations northwest of Houston began to decrease in 2007, which may indicate that subsidence may be decreasing in these areas.

GPS-derived ground deformation (2005–2014) within the Gulf of Mexico region referred to a stable Gulf of Mexico reference frame

“…In the case of groundwater withdrawal induced subsidence, a subsidence bowl can be formed by localized aquifer compaction. In such an event, it is possible that GPS stations are pulled horizontally towards the center of the subsidence bowl (e.g., Allis, 2000;Bawden et al, 2001Bawden et al, , 2012. Depending on the position of a station relative to the subsidence center, the ratio of horizontal to vertical velocities varies.…”

“…The groundwater induced subsidence in the Houston area has been intensively investigated by researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) (Bawden et al, 2012;Galloway et al, 1999;Johnson et al, 2011;Kasmarek et al, 2009Kasmarek et al, , 2010Kasmarek et al, , 2012Kasmarek et al, , 2013, National Geodetic Survey (NGS) (Zilkoski et al, 2003), and local research institutions (e.g., Engelkemeir et al, 2010;Kearns et al, 2015;Khan et al, 2014;Qu et al, 2015;Wang and Soler, 2013;Wang et al, 2015b). A recent study conducted by Yu et al (2014) indicated that the subsidence in the Houston metropolitan area is attributed by the compaction of aquifers within about 500 m to the ground surface.…”

“…Historically, subsidence in the Houston area had been primarily occurring in the eastern and southeastern portions. A comparison of the current subsidence and recent subsidence mapped by the USGS (Bawden et al, 2012) indicates that the subsidence in the Houston area has been migrating to the western and northern areas since the 1990s. The overall subsidence has also been reduced significantly as a result of rigidly enforced groundwater regulation plans (Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, 2013).…”

Chronological reflection on monitoring urban areas subsidence due to groundwater extraction

“…These were combined with extensometer measurements, LIDAR surveys, and in the last decades with InSAR technology measurements. More studies using InSAR, PSI, or SBAS were conducted for covering different time intervals after 1990s [40], [39]. It could be identified areas with subsidence values between 20 and 50 mm/yr [40].…”

Water Intrusion in the Chesapeake Bay Region: Is It Caused by Climate-Induced Sea Level Rise?

“…Two well-studied cases of land subsidence are in the Houston-Galveston, Texas, area and the Santa Clara Valley, California. Land sank by as much as three meters over 50 years because of intensive groundwater withdrawals in the two areas, as well as petroleum extraction in Texas, resulting in increased coastal flooding [4]. Regional authorities were established in the two areas to manage water use and land subsidence.…”