A differential SAR interferometry approach for monitoring urban deformation phenomena

This paper presents a new DIFSAR approach that allows us to detect and follow the temporal evolution of localized deformations. This approach, which is suitable for monitoring single buildings or structures, extends the capability of the algorithm referred to as SBAS technique, originally developed for investigating large scale deformation phenomena. The proposed technique relies on small baseline interferograms only, in order to preserve the DIFSAR capability to provide spatially dense deformation maps; moreover, it requires two different sets of DIFSAR interferograms generated at low (multi-look data) and high (single-look data) spatial resolution, respectively. The algorithm has been tested with data acquired by the European Remote Sensing (ERS) satellite relative to the area of the city of Napoli (Italy) and the results have been validated by using geodetic data.