Assessing the suitability of Sentinel-1 data for landslide mapping

Abstract

Landslides are recognized as one of the most damaging natural hazards in Western Greece due to the complex geological structure, the intense precipitation and the high seismicity. In that context, the development of low-cost, semiautomatic, monitoring methodologies based on satellite data is a necessity in order to prevent and mitigate the landslide risk and decrease the damages in a future reactivation. The current study focuses on the application of three different processing methodologies on Sentinel-1 data: (a) interferogram generation, (b) comparison of interferometric Digital Surface Model (DSM) before and after the landslide event and (c) another processing technique called “offset tracking”. The selection of Sentinel-1 data was based on the fact that the specific mission provides timely, freely accessible data, with satisfactory spatial resolution for repeated earth observation. The study area is located almost 20 km south of the city of Patras near to the Village Moira. The landslide with a total length of 300 m and a head width of 330 m is being investigating by repeated field campaigns and Global Navigation Satellite System measurements, and thus, the derived results from the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data processing were evaluated with the in situ measurements.