Monitoring and Analysis of Ground Surface Settlement in Mining Clusters by SBAS-InSAR Technology

Sensors (Basel). 2022 May 13;22(10):3711. doi: 10.3390/s22103711.

Abstract

In this paper, we use the small baseline set technology and the early geological hazard identification method based on the selection of Permanent Scatter (PS) and Distributed Scatter (DS) points to carry out the research on surface deformation monitoring caused by underground activities in mining cluster areas. We adopted the Small Baseline Subset InSAR (SBAS-InSAR) technique to process Sentinel-1A SAR images over the research area from March 2017 to May 2021. The deformation estimation technology based on the robustness of PS points and DS points can be used for early identification of high-density surface subsidence in a large area of mines. The surface subsidence information can be obtained quickly and accurately, and the advantages of using InSAR technology to monitor long-time surface subsidence in complex mining cluster areas was explored in this study. By comparing the monitoring data of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) ground monitoring equipment, the accuracy error of large-scale surface settlement information is controlled within 8 mm, which has high accuracy. Meanwhile, according to the spatial characteristics of cluster mining areas, it is analyzed that the relationship between adjacent mining areas through groundwater easily leads to regional associated large-area settlement changes. Compared with the D-InSAR (Differential InSAR) technology applied in mine monitoring at the early stage, this proposed method can monitor a large range of long time series and optimize the problem of decoherence to some extent in mining cluster areas. It has important reference significance for early monitoring and early warning of subsidence disaster evolution in mining intensive areas.

Keywords: SBAS-InSAR; early identification method; mining area cluster area; surface subsidence.