2nd Generation, Multi-Temporal DInSAR Monitoring of Critical Infrastructural Sites for the Assessment of Hazard Risk
Vollrath, Andreas1; Zucca, Francesco1; Stramondo, Salvatore2
1Università degli studi di Pavia, ITALY; 2INGV, ITALY

With the launch of Sentinel-1, interferometric applications will become more applicable then ever. The foreseen standard Wide Area Product (WAP), with its higher spatial and temporal resolution than comparable SAR missions, will provide the basement for new wide scale and multi-temporal operational applications. By now the use of SAR interferometry methods with respect to hazard assessment are mainly conducted for active tectonic zones, plate boundaries, volcanoes as well as urban areas, where local surface movements can occur.
In contrast, this study aims to apply state-of-the-art dInSAR techniques (i.e. PSInSAR, SBAS and derivative methods) to assess the potential of monitoring important infrastructural sites and buildings with regard to energy power supply that are located in tectonic zones or have other types of surficial movements and are not necessarily located in urban areas.
At this stage of the project, two sites are under focus. The area between Augusta and Siracusa in Sicily, Italy is a place with a high density of oil refineries. It is located between the Malta Escarpment fault system and the Hyblean plateau and is prone to earthquake and tsunami risk.
The second site represents movements related to mining and combustion activities in North East Estonia near to the power plants of Balti Soojuselektrijaam and Eesti Soojuselektrijaam. Ash combustion and waste-mounds, that show heating or even burning activities inside, lead to consequential movements here.
Where possible, GPS measurements will be integrated into the processing to achieve more reliable results with respect to the used methodology. DInSAR already demonstrated a high potential for surface movement monitoring and is considered as a cost-effective and spatially consistent tool. Therefore different dInSAR methods will be applied and compared to assess their usability for a given operational monitoring scenario by exploiting the whole ERS and ENVISAT SAR archive for the given areas. At this stage, preliminary results will be presented and a roadmap for further activities is going to be shown. This includes validation and tectonic modelling for risk assessment.
Subsequently, other sites of interest will be included that refer to the framework of the "stress test" initiative for nuclear power plants. Here, the European commission calls for the strengthening of scientific activities with respect to risk assessments due to a lack of assessing and managing external hazards at nuclear power plants.