Multi-temporal InSAR monitoring of landslides in a tropical urban environment: focus on Bukavu (DR Congo)
Discipline
Earth and related Environmental sciences
Subject
Natural hazards
Audience
Scientific
Date
2016Metadata
Show full item recordDescription
The  western  branch  of  the  East  African  Rift  System,  in  Central  Africa,  is  characterized  by  the  presence  of  several geohazards: earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides. Every year, landslides cause fatalities, structural and  functional damage to infrastructure and private properties with serious disruptions of the organization of societies  and severe impact on the populations.  These  impacts  are  particularly  important  in  the  city  of  Bukavu  (DR  Congo)  located  within  the  Rift,  on  the  southern shore of Lake Kivu. Large slow-moving landslides continuously affect highly populated slopes in the  city. However little is known about their actual kinematics and the processes at play. Here we use multi-temporal  InSAR  technique  to  monitor  these  ground  deformations.  Using  50  Cosmo-SkyMed  SAR  images,  acquired  between March   October 2015 with a revisiting time of 8 days (ascending and descending orbits), we produce  displacement-rate maps and ground deformation time series using the PS technique. Movements with a velocity  >5cm/yr are detected, which is consistent with field observations. DGPS measurements, taken at 21 benchmarks  in the area during the same period, allow validating the results. Similar ground deformation rates are found for the  period 2002-2008 using Envisat ASAR images. Furthermore, comparison with rainfall monitoring data acquire on  site should help us to understand the influence of water and the tropical seasonality in the slide mechanisms.
Citation
Nobile, A.; Monsieurs, E.; Dewitte, O.; d'Oreye, N.; Kervyn, F. (2016). Multi-temporal InSAR monitoring of landslides in a tropical urban environment: focus on Bukavu (DR Congo). , EGU General Assembly 2016, Vol. 18, EGU2016-3927,Identifiers
Type
Conference
Peer-Review
No
Language
eng
