Innovative Uses of InSAR Remote Sensing for Geotechnical Performance Verification

Geotechnical foundation and site designs focus on capacity and deformation criteria for nearly every designed structure. However, during construction, load testing is performed to verify strengths, yet very little, if any, deformation measurements are made. Advances in technologies have made it possible to obtain performance metrics on many structures postconstruction. This provides value in the verification of expectations but may also provide valuable information to help us improve design and construction processes in the future. Traditional monitoring techniques still require field visits by professionals; however, satellitebased data capture does not require field visits and can capture data over time and allow change detection. Two case studies incorporated the use of satellite InSAR observations to monitor longterm movements of infrastructure on improved ground. The first case study was the long-Term settlement of a large oil tank in the Houston Ship Channel. The observations were able to track the vertical movement of the tank successfully and even detected differential settlements. The InSAR observations were nearly identical to those generated from a calibrated soil model. The second case study was the monitoring of a 30-story rigid building on improved ground. The InSAR observations successfully captured the settlement of the building and even detected a 6 mm seasonal variation in movement. This paper will review these two case histories and demonstrate that InSAR observations can be successfully used to monitor infrastructure on improved ground as well as discuss the potential for improvement to our design processes as a result.