Recent Advances in RP-POL-In-SAR Hazard Monitoring of Tectonic Stress and Land-Slides

Worldwide, medium- to short-term earthquake prediction is becoming ever more essential for safeguarding man due to an un-abating population increase, but hitherto there have been no verifiable methods of reliable earthquake prediction developed. This dilemma is a result of previous and still current approaches to earthquake prediction which are squarely based on the measurement of crustal movements, observable only after a tectonic stress-change discharge (earthquake) has occurred. During the past decades it was proved and shown that it is not possible to derive reliable models for earthquake predictions from crustal movement measurements alone, and that an entirely new approach must be taken and rigorously pursued over years and decades to come. In support of this conclusion, there have been reported throughout the history of man anecdotal historical up to scientifically verifiable earthquake precursor or "seismo-genic" signatures of various kind - biological, geological, geo-chemical and especially a rather large plethora of diverse electromagnetic ones on ground, in air and space, denoted as "seismo-electromagnetic" signatures. Taiwan is one of the few regions where those phenomena may best be observed. In this overview a systematic analysis of main historical records, a summary of pertinent "seimogenic" as well as observed "seismo-electromagnetic" effects and modern ground-based to air- and space-borne metrological signature investigations are presented placing major emphasis on ongoing studies in Taiwan.