Ground deformation monitoring on the asturian coast (NW Spain) using the European Ground Motion Service

In Asturias (NW Spain), landslides are among the most significant geological hazards, causing major economic losses and fatalities every year. This study analyzes ground movements along the entire Asturian coast using Advanced Differential SAR Interferometry (A-DInSAR) techniques. Data provided by the European Ground Motion Service (EGMS; Crosetto et al., 2020) for the period 2018-2022 were acquired in ascending and descending orbits (Level 2b) and vertical and horizontal components (Level 3). These products were subsequently processed using ADAtools (Navarro et al., 2020) software to obtain deformation velocity maps and Active Deformation Area (ADA) maps. Overall, the results show a notable concentration of ADAs along the central Asturian coast, whereas the western and eastern coasts show isolated ADAs. Most ADAs are associated with to deformations in port and road infrastructure, as well as coastal landslides. The EGMS has proven to be a very useful tool for detecting and characterizing ground deformations with millimetric precision, as well as for monitoring large coastal areas free of charge and accessible to both expert and non-expert users.

Crosetto, M.; Solari, L.; Balasis-Levinsen, J.; Bateson, L.; Casagli, N.; Frei, M.; Oyen, A.; Moldestad, D.A.; Mróz, M. Deformation monitoring at European Scale: The Copernicus Ground Motion Service. In Proceedings of the International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Science, XXIV ISPRS Congress 2021, Nice, France, 5–9 July 2021; Volume XLIII-B3-2021, pp. 141–146.

Navarro, J. A., Tomás, R., Barra, A., Pagán, J. I., Reyes-Carmona, C., Solari, L., Vinielles, J. L., Falco, S., and Crosetto, M. (2020). ADAtools: Automatic Detection and Classification of Active Deformation Areas from PSI Displacement Maps. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 9, 584

Research funding:    RETROCLIFF (PID2021-122472NB-100, MCIN/AEI/FEDER, UE) and GEOCANTABRICA (IDE/2024/000753, SEK-25-GRU-GIC-24-072, Principado de Asturias).