Remote Sens. 2016, 8(6), 468; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8060468
Imaging Land Subsidence Induced by Groundwater Extraction in Beijing (China) Using Satellite Radar Interferometry
Mi Chen 1,2,*
, Roberto Tomás 2,3
, Zhenhong Li 2, Mahdi Motagh 4, Tao Li 2,5, Leyin Hu 2,6, Huili Gong 1, Xiaojuan Li 1, Jun Yu 7 and Xulong Gong 7
, Zhenhong Li 2, Mahdi Motagh 4, Tao Li 2,5, Leyin Hu 2,6, Huili Gong 1, Xiaojuan Li 1, Jun Yu 7 and Xulong Gong 71
College of Resources Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 10048, China
2
Center for Observation & Modeling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes & Tectonics (COMET), School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear NE1 7RU, UK
3
Department of Civil Engineering, Escuela Politécnica Superior, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99, Alicante 03080, Spain
4
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Department of Geodesy, Potsdam 14473, Germany
5
GNSS Research Center, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China
6
Earthquake Administration of Beijing Municipality, Beijing 100080, China
7
Key Laboratory of Earth Fissures Geological Disaster, Ministry of Land and Resources (Geological Survey of Jiangsu Province), Nanjing 210018, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Zhong Lu, Salvatore Stramondo and Prasad S. Thenkabail
Received: 6 April 2016 / Revised: 5 May 2016 / Accepted: 23 May 2016 / Published: 2 June 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Earth Observations for Geohazards)
Abstract
Beijing is one of the most water-stressed cities in the world. Due to over-exploitation of groundwater, the Beijing region has been suffering from land subsidence since 1935. In this study, the Small Baseline InSAR technique has been employed to process Envisat ASAR images acquired between 2003 and 2010 and TerraSAR-X stripmap images collected from 2010 to 2011 to investigate land subsidence in the Beijing region. The maximum subsidence is seen in the eastern part of Beijing with a rate greater than 100 mm/year. Comparisons between InSAR and GPS derived subsidence rates show an RMS difference of 2.94 mm/year with a mean of 2.41 ± 1.84 mm/year. In addition, a high correlation was observed between InSAR subsidence rate maps derived from two different datasets (i.e., Envisat and TerraSAR-X). These demonstrate once again that InSAR is a powerful tool for monitoring land subsidence. InSAR derived subsidence rate maps have allowed for a comprehensive spatio-temporal analysis to identify the main triggering factors of land subsidence. Some interesting relationships in terms of land subsidence were found with groundwater level, active faults, accumulated soft soil thickness and different aquifer types. Furthermore, a relationship with the distances to pumping wells was also recognized in this work. View Full-TextKeywords:
radar; InSAR; Beijing; land subsidence; triggering factors; conditioning factors
▼
Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Chen, M.; Tomás, R.; Li, Z.; Motagh, M.; Li, T.; Hu, L.; Gong, H.; Li, X.; Yu, J.; Gong, X. Imaging Land Subsidence Induced by Groundwater Extraction in Beijing (China) Using Satellite Radar Interferometry. Remote Sens. 2016, 8, 468.
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Related Articles
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Remote Sens.
EISSN 2072-4292
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert