Monitoring of flood protection systems with InSAR in Austria

The frequency and intensity of flooding are increasing due to climate change, posing growing risks to people, infrastructure, and the environment. As a result, sustainable natural hazard management and structural health monitoring are becoming increasingly important. This study explores the potential of using multitemporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) from Sentinel-1 satellites to monitor the structural health of flood protection systems along the Danube River in Lower Austria. InSAR is a powerful tool for monitoring surface displacements over large areas under all weather conditions, offering valuable insights into the structural health of infrastructure assets. This study demonstrates the potential of applying InSAR to monitor flood protection structures along the Danube River, while also highlighting key limitations due to the low density of natural reflectors. Future research will focus on increasing the number of reliable reflection points through the use oflow-cost, widely deployable corner reflectors, and on exploring InSAR data from other existing and upcoming satellite missions.