Landslide monitoring using insar time-series and GPS observations, case study: Shabkola landslide in northern Iran

Abstract

Shabkola is a village located in Mazandaran province of northern Iran that suffers from the mass movement happening in the upstream. Deforestation and changes to land use are the main reasons for the soil instability in this region, which together with steep slope, relatively high precipitation rate and natural erosion has led to such a condition. The area of mass movement is approximately 90 hectares which is a big threat for people living in the region. In this study, we have utilized two different geodetic techniques including InSAR time-series analysis and GPS measurements to assess slope stability in Shabkola. The SAR dataset includes 19 ALOS/PALSAR images spanning from July 2007 to February 2011 while GPS observations are collected in 5 campaigns from September 2011 to May 2014. Displacement as much as approximately 11.7 m in slope direction was detected by GPS observations for the 2011-2014 time period. Most of the slope geometry is in north-south direction, for which the sensitivity of InSAR for displacement detection is low. However, ALOS PALSAR data analysis revealed a previously unknown landslide, covered by dense vegetation in the northern part of main Shabkola landslide, showing line-of-sight velocity of approximately 2cm/year in the time period 2007-2011.