Land Subsidence in Qingdao, China, from 2017 to 2020 Based on PS-InSAR

Land subsidence is a global geological disaster that seriously affects the safety of surface and underground buildings/structures and even leads to loss of life and property. The large-scale and continuous long-time coverage of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) time series analysis techniques provide data and a basis for the development of methods for the investigation and evolution mechanism study of regional land subsidence. Based on the 108 SAR data of Sentinel-1 from April 2017 to December 2020, this study used Persistent Scatterer InSAR (PS-InSAR) technology to monitor the land subsidence in Qingdao. In addition, detailed analysis and discussion of land subsidence combined with the local land types and subway construction were carried out. From the entire area to the local scale, the deformation analysis was carried out in the two dimensions of time and space. The results reveal that the rate of surface deformation in Qingdao from 2017 to 2020 was mainly −34.48 to 5.77 mm/a and that the cumulative deformation was mainly −126.10 to 30.18 mm. The subsidence areas were mainly distributed in coastal areas (along the coasts of Jiaozhou Bay and the Yellow Sea) and inland areas (northeast Laixi City and central Pingdu City). In addition, it was found that obvious land subsidence occurred near the Health Center Station of Metro Line 8, a logistics company in Qingdao, and near several high-rise residential areas and business office buildings. It is necessary for the relevant departments to take timely action to prevent and mitigate subsidence-related disasters in these areas.