Monitoring Land Subsidence Using PS-InSAR Technique in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Land subsidence is a major concern in vastly growing metropolitans worldwide. The most serious risks in this scenario are linked to groundwater extraction and urban development. Pakistan’s fourth-largest city, Rawalpindi, and its twin Islamabad, located at the northern edge of the Potwar Plateau, are witnessing extensive urban expansion. Groundwater (tube-wells) is residents’ primary daily water supply in these metropolitan areas. Unnecessarily pumping and the local inhabitant’s excessive demand for groundwater disturb the sub-surface’s viability. The Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (PS-InSAR) approach, along with Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery, were used to track land subsidence in Rawalpindi-Islamabad. The SARPROZ application was used to study a set of Sentinel-1 imagery obtained from January 2019 to June 2021 along descending and ascending orbits to estimate ground subsidence in the Rawalpindi-Islamabad area. The results show a significant increase (−25 to −30 mm/yr) in subsidence from −69 mm/yr in 2019 to −98 mm/yr in 2020. The suggested approach effectively maps, detects, and monitors subsidence-prone terrains and will enable better planning, surface infrastructure building designs, and risk management related to subsidence.