Polarimetric Deformation Maps Retrieval of Urban Areas using Ground-Based SAR Acquisitions

A one-year subsidence monitoring activity has been carried out by the Remote Sensing Laboratory (RSLab) of the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) using an X-band ground-based SAR sensor. The project aimed at studying the subsidence phenomenon induced by salt mining extraction of the past years in the village of Sallent (Spain). The polarimetric capability of the system allowed to gather zero-baseline POL-SAR data in the single-pass mode in 9 different days, from June 2006 to April 2007. The estimation of the linear component of deformation process obtained using each polarization channel separately is here compared with the result of a new approach exploiting the full knowledge of the scattering matrix at once. For this purpose, a coherence-based approach is employed. The higher amount information carried by polarimetric data is finally pointed out both in terms of number of reliable pixels selected within the scene and higher quality of the retrieved subsidence map.