SAR Remote Sensing for Landslide Dynamics and Hazards

Over the past three decades, SAR remote sensing has evolved into an instrumental tool for quantifying surface deformation and has significantly facilitated the advancement of landslide science, especially for studying slow-moving landslides. Here, we present multiple exemplary studies to showcase SAR’s essential values in large-area landslide mapping, continuous and near-real-time deformation monitoring, unveiling of spatiotemporal landslide dynamics, and commensurate hazard assessment and runout inundation forecast. These case studies entail exploration of P/L/C/X-band SAR data acquired from variable spaceborne and airborne platforms with distinct temporal and spatial resolutions, integration of multi-sensor remote sensing and field measurements, and SAR-observation-informed mechanistic modeling of landslide physics and hazards. In addition, we discuss the current challenges of landslide studies using SAR and the potential solutions and pathways forward, in the context of increasingly available and diverse SAR datasets globally. Importantly, the capabilities and challenges of SAR remote sensing highlighted here extend beyond landslide research, offering valuable insights for addressing other human-induced and natural hazards, including glacier movement, tectonic faulting, volcanic unrest, and urban subsidence.