InSAR detection of residual settlement of ocean reclamation areas in Shenzhen, China

Shenzhen, is the third busiest container port in China. As a newly developed city, Shenzhen is undergoing tremendous change in landscape. The once hilly areas have been toppled over to make land. Reclaimed land is built to harbors, industry parks, and residential developments. However, ground settlement is a common phenomenon in reclaimed land, and mostly caused by settling of unconsolidated basements. This study uses Permanent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) technologies to investigate ground settlement in the reclamation areas. A time series of ENVISAT ASAR images from May 2006 to September 2010 are used to generate ground settlement fields in the study area. Based on the ground deformation rate maps derived from ASAR images, thematic maps of ground settlement zones are generated. In general, the ground settlement zones are mainly distributed along the reclaimed harbor areas. The points and zones with great ground settlement values in the study area are located.