Long‐term subsidence in Mexico City from 2004 to 2018 revealed by five synthetic aperture radar sensors

Abstract

Anthropogenic land subsidence is an example of changes to the natural environment due to human activities and is one of the key factors in causing land degradation at a range of scales. Previous studies assessing land subsidence in the Valley of Mexico either focused on regional scale or short (noncontinuous) temporal scale. In this study, long‐term land subsidence (~15 years) is mapped in Mexico City (Mexico) using two interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) methods, namely, GEOS (Geoscience and Earth Observing Systems Group)‐Advance Time‐series Analysis and GEOS‐Small Baseline Subset. An inverse distance weighted‐based integration module and maximum likelihood regression‐based M estimator are introduced to further enhance these two methods. The land subsidence was continuously mapped using ENVISAT (2004–2007), ALOS‐1 (2007–2011), COSMO‐SkyMed (2011–2014), ALOS‐2 (2014–2018), and SENTINEL‐1 (2015–2017) data sets. A comparison between InSAR time‐series and GPS measurement shows that the subsidence rates are consistent over 2004–2018. The subsidence map over 15 years was generated finding a maximum subsidence over 4.5 m. By comparing our InSAR results with a land use map, we find that the subsidence centre in Mexico City is mostly located in the residential regions with the consumption of groundwater contributing considerably to the local subsidence rate. A total volume of 1.20 × 108 m3 of the land in Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl subsided/degraded. A continuing subsidence process limits the potential land use causing serious land degradation. Our results may be used to assist disaster reduction plans.

Over a Century of Sinking in Mexico City: No Hope for Significant Elevation and Storage Capacity Recovery

“…In the ZMVM, Strozzi and Wegmuller (1999) used 1996 SAR data from the European Remote Sensing (ERS) satellites to isolate 30 cm/year of subsidence. Cabral-Cano et al (2008) and Sentinel-1 data and found similar rates between 2003 and 2016 and Du et al (2019) used multiple sensors to derive an accumulated 2004-2017 subsidence map. Cigna and Tapete (2021) used 2014-2020 Sentinel-1 data and found subsidence rates up to 39 cm/yr.…”

Remotely triggered subsidence acceleration in Mexico City induced by the September 2017 <i>M</i><sub>w</sub> 7.1 Puebla and the <i>M</i><sub>w</sub> 8.2 Tehuantepec September 2017 earthquakes

“…However, in the past decade subsidence has monitored by advanced satellite geodetic techniques, mainly satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and GPS (e.g. Cabral et al, 2008;López-Quiroz et al, 2009;Osmanoglu et al, 2011;Du et al, 2019). These studies have routinely detected the highest subsidence rates in the eastern sector of the city within two areas that correspond to the former Texcoco and Chalco-Xochimilco lakes (Fig.…”

The Risk Atlas of Mexico City, Mexico: A Tool for Decision-Making and Disaster Prevention

“…In the past decade, subsidence of the city has been studied with modern geodetic techniques (Cabral-Cano et al 2008;López-Quiroz et al 2009;Osmanoglu et al 2011;Chaussard et al 2014;Du et al 2019;Fernández-Torres et al 2020;Solano-Rojas et al 2020;Cigna and Tapete 2021). In this study, subsidence in CDMX was analyzed using 125 images recorded between November 2014 and October 2017 by the C-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) instrument onboard the Sentinel 1-A and B in Interferometric Wide Swath, descending mode (Figure 5a).…”