Scatterer-Based Deformation Monitoring Induced Due to Coal Mining by DInSAR Techniques

This chapter explains monitoring deformation history due to coal mining using time series SAR analysis. Surface deformation is a very common phenomenon in and around mining areas, and a space-based SAR technique is a promising tool for monitoring land deformation. Monitoring of land subsidence is required to prevent further damage to the mine’s surrounding built-up areas and other vulnerable structures and landforms. This further helps by providing information for improved future mine layout designs and for subsidence mitigation. This study involves time series SAR data processing using L-band datasets for monitoring land deformation using an advanced differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) algorithm referred to as the persistent scatterer (PS) InSAR technique. The advantage of using PSInSAR is that it deals with both decorrelation and atmospheric delay errors of conventional InSAR and provides deformation history with sub-centimeter accuracy. The study was carried out in one of the most popular and largest coal-producing mining areas in India, i.e. the Jharia coal field, situated in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India. The main objective of this work is to analyze time series interferometric SAR data to detect surface deformation in and around the Jharia coal field. The aim of this research is to present a cumulative displacement map using a number of interferometric datasets and to assess the geohazard activity in the study area. The data used in this study is ALOS-2 PALSAR L-band (2016 to 2019) to perform interferometric data processing and comparative analysis. A high rate of land deformation was observed in and around the mining area, and the land deformation rate was observed at almost ± 30 cm/year in this study area.