Potential of InSAR for Structural Health Monitoring of Flood Protection Systems

Extreme weather events that cause flooding endanger people, economic goods, and the environment. Flood protection systems, such as dams, dikes, and levees, defend these valuable assets and therefore their structural health should be monitored. The goal of this project is to investigate the potential of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) satellites for the monitoring of dams and dikes. The ability to monitor flood protection systems depends on the availability of a sufficient number of measurement points. This is influenced by several factors, such as the type of the scanned surface area (e.g. vegetation cover, concrete), the orientation of the dike with respect to the satellite’s orbit, the temporal and spatial resolution of the SAR sensor, and the period for which the European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) provides the data. It is also of interest to study the differences between persistent scatterers and distributed scatterers. Furthermore, the correlation between surface subsidence detected by InSAR and the changes in water level, which pinpoint flood events, is also investigated. The use of Corner Reflectors or satellites with higher spatial resolution, are also some of the aspects to be explored in the next steps to investigate how to maximize the potential of InSAR satellites for the monitoring of flood protection systems