1 s2.0 S0013795214000477 Main

Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Engineering Geology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enggeo
Investigating landslides and unstable slopes with satellite Multi

Temporal Interferometry: Current issues and future perspectives
Janusz Wasowski a,, Fabio Bovenga b
a
b
National Research Council, CNR-IRPI, Bari, Italy

National Research Council, CNR-ISSIA, Bari, Italy
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 9 July 2013
Received in revised form 6 December 2013
Accepted 1 March 2014
Available online 15 March 2014
Keywords:
Multi Temporal Interferometry
Satellite
Landslides
Unstable slopes
Technical constraints
Interpretation issues
a b s t r a c t
Multi Temporal Interferometry (MTI) stands for advanced synthetic aperture radar differential interferometry
(DInSAR) techniques, which include Permanent/Persistent Scatterers Interferometry PSInSAR/PSI and
similar methods, as well as Small Baseline Subset SBAS and related/hybrid approaches. These techniques are
capable to provide wide-area coverage (thousands of km2) and precise (mmcm resolution), spatially dense information (from hundreds to thousands of measurement points/km2) on ground surface deformations. New MTI
application opportunities are emerging thanks to i) greater data availability from radar satellites, and ii) improved capabilities of the new space radar sensors (X-band Cosmo-SkyMed, C-band RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X)
in terms of resolution (from 3 to 1 m) and revisit time (from 11 to 4 days for X-band acquisitions). This implies
greater quantity and quality information about ground surface displacements and hence improved landslide detection and monitoring capabilities. Even though the applicability of MTI to regional and local-scale investigations
of slow landslides has already been demonstrated, the awareness of the MTI utility and its technical limitations
among landslide scientists and practitioners is still rather low. By referring to recent works on radar remote sensing, many regional and local scale MTI application examples from the geoscience literature and our own studies,
we present an up-to-date overview of current opportunities and challenges in this eld. We discuss relevant
technical constraints and data interpretation issues that hamper the use of MTI in landslide assessment. Then
guidelines on how to mitigate MTI technical limitations and avoid erroneous interpretations of radar-derived
slope surface deformations are presented for the benet of users lacking advanced knowledge in SAR applications. Finally, in view of the upcoming radar satellite launches, future perspectives on MTI applications are
outlined and recommendations for applied research priorities are suggested. We foresee that with regular
globe-scale coverage, improved temporal resolution (weekly or better) and freely available imagery, new
radar satellite background missions such as the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 will guarantee ever increasing and more efcient use of MTI in landslide investigations. Furthermore, thanks to the improved temporal and
spatial resolutions of the new generation radar sensors, signicant breakthroughs are expected in detailed slope
instability process modeling (e.g. kinematic and geotechnical models), as well as in the understanding of spatial
and temporal patterns of landslide movement/activity and their relationships to causative or triggering factors
(e.g. precipitation, seismic loading).
2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Contents
1.
2.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Background on DInSAR and Multi Temporal Interferometry . . . . . . . . .
2.1.
DInSAR and MTI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.
MTI techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.
Technical and practical issues of MTI applied to landslide investigations .
2.3.1.
CT selection, coherence threshold, number of images . . . . .
2.3.2.
CT density and articial reectors (AR) . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.3.
CT geocoding accuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.4.
Different types of CT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.5.
Deformation model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Corresponding author: Tel./fax: +39 080 5929583.

E-mail address: j.wasowski@ba.irpi.cnr.it (J. Wasowski).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2014.03.003
0013-7952/ 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138
2.3.6.
Aliasing problem and maximum detectable velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.7.
Reference point selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.8.
3D deformations vs. LOS measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.9.
Geometrical distortions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.10. SAR missions and data characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.11. Performance of L/C/X band MTI in terms of movement monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.12. High resolution X-band data and new application possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.13. MTI measurement precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.
Quality, reliability and validation of MTI products (assessments using cross-comparisons and ground truth)
2.4.1.
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.2.
Factors that inuence the quality of MTI products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.3.
Assessments of MTI results quality using cross-comparisons and ground truth . . . . . . . . . .
3.
MTI applications in landslide investigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.
Feasibility assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.1.
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.2.
A priori assessments of MTI applicability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.3.
Land cover/use, lithology and CT density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.4.
Sensitivity to down-slope movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.5.
Example of landslide visibility and sensitivity to down-slope movement maps . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.
Regional scale MTI investigations of landslides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.1.
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.2.
Examples of regional scale ERS-based MTI studies of landslides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.3.
Applicability potential of MTI based on ERS and other C-band data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.
Catchment-wide and local scale (slope specic) MTI investigations of landslides . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.1.
Example of catchment scale MTI investigation of landslides in the US . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.2.
Examples of catchment scale MTI investigations of landslides in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.3.
Example of catchment scale MTI investigation of landslides in Gansu, China . . . . . . . . .
3.4.
Local scale (slope specic) MTI investigations of landslides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4.1.
Madesimo case study, Central Alps, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4.2.
BindoCortenova case study, Central Italian Pre-Alps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4.3.
Saint Moritz case study, Swiss Alps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5.
Monitoring infrastructure stability in landslide-prone areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.
Limitations of MTI applications in landslide investigations and user guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.
Summary discussion and future research priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Introduction
Although the rst application of space-borne Synthetic Aperture
Radar Differential Interferometry (DInSAR) to a landslide investigation
dates back to the mid-1990 (Fruneau et al., 1996), it was only in the
following decade that this technique captured the attention of the landslide community. This was prompted by i) the availability of sufciently
long series of radar images acquired in particular by the European Space
Agency (ESA); ii) the development of the Multi Temporal Interferometry (MTInSAR or MTI) methods (e.g. Permanent Scatterers Interferometry PSInSAR, Ferretti et al., 2001, Small Baseline Subset SBAS,
Berardino et al, 2002; Usai, 2003), which overcome some of the limitations of conventional differential SAR interferometry (DInSAR) and
iii) the presentation of several successful examples of MTI applications
to landslide investigations (e.g. Colesanti et al., 2003a; Hilley et al.,
2004; Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006).
Indeed, MTI techniques are attractive, in that with wide spatial
coverage and regular satellite re-visits over the same areas they offer
the possibility of continuous, long-term monitoring (several years). Furthermore, retrospective studies are possible by exploiting radar imagery
archives now spanning over 20 years.
Referring to the exploitation of ERS satellite medium resolution data,
in a review of PSInSAR applications for landslide assessment Colesanti
and Wasowski (2006) pointed out the following advantages of the
technique:
Cost-effectiveness for wide-area applications (hundreds and thousands
of km2)
High precision (mm) of measurements (comparable to or better
than GPS)
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High density of radar targets (from tens to hundreds per km 2 in

urbanized zones)
High geo-coding accuracy of radar targets (positioning error within
510 m)
Use of natural radar targets (without deployment or maintenance
costs).
MTI applications are to a considerable degree opportunistic in nature
(cf. Hanssen, 2005), in the sense that they can offer valuable information where other data are not available, even though the exact locations
of measurement points cannot be controlled by the user.
The last decade has also witnessed continuous progress in SAR data
processing techniques with the development of a series of different and
increasingly sophisticated MTI techniques (e.g. Hooper, 2008; Fornaro
et al., 2009; Ferretti et al, 2011). Furthermore, new application opportunities have emerged thanks to i) the greater data availability offered by
recent launches of radar satellites, and ii) the improved capabilities
of the new space radar sensors (X-band Cosmo-SkyMed, C-band
RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X) in terms of resolution (from 3 to 1 m) and
revisit time (from 11 to 4 days for X-band acquisitions).
The availability of more and better resolution information on ground
surface displacements implies better landslide monitoring and slope
instability investigation capabilities. Indeed, substantial improvements
in the applicability of the MTI technique to regional and local-scale investigations of landslides have been indicated by recent studies focused
on the use of high spatialtemporal resolution radar data (e.g. Notti
et al., 2010; Prati et al., 2010; Bovenga et al., 2012a, 2013; Duro et al.,
2012; Herrera et al., 2013). Considering the increasing number of SAR
satellites, the more consistent and frequent radar image acquisitions,
as well as the greater availability of high resolution data, we anticipate
further signicant advances in the eld of MTI-based landslide investigations and monitoring.
Nevertheless, the engineering geology community appears to be not
yet fully aware of the actual potential and limitations of MTI as applied
to landslide investigations. Some persisting skepticism, especially
among practitioners and end users, may have resulted from the initial
tendency to overlook the difculties in the practical exploitation of the
technique for the detection and monitoring of unstable slopes. A more
balanced picture is needed considering also that scientic literature is
generally dominated by examples of successful studies, often based on
large quantities of radar imagery and regarding favorable environmental settings. This work addresses the above issues by providing an up
to date critical review of current opportunities and challenges of
MTI-based landslide investigations. We assume that by now many
landslide scientists are (or could easily become) familiar with
space-borne SAR, DInSAR and PSInSAR, since relevant information
has already been provided in two Special Issues of Engineering
Geology focused on remote sensing of landslides and unstable slopes
(e.g. Colesanti et al., 2003a; Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006). Nevertheless, numerous new, up-to-date references are made to remote
sensing literature that covers theoretical and practical aspects of
radar interferometry, as well as to the applied earth science literature. We draw also from the outcomes of international conferences
(e.g. Fringe workshops; ENVISAT symposia) focused on the science
and applications of SAR interferometry, which are regularly organized
by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The paper begins with a very brief presentation of principles of radar
interferometry. This is followed by an updated, thorough overview of
the recent advances in MTI methods, considering both technical and
practical issues that are relevant in the applications focused on slope
instability investigations. Then, we present different examples of
regional to local scale MTI applications to landslide investigations in various geomorphologic and climatic settings; here we rely both on our
own investigations conducted in Mediterranean and central Europe, as
well as in China, and also on a review of relevant experiences reported
in literature by other research groups. The cases reported from literature
rely on the use of different advanced processing algorithms, whereas our
own examples are based on the MTI results derived using the SPINUA algorithm (Bovenga et al., 2005). To better highlight the current limitations in the MTI applicability and relevant interpretation issues, rather
than presenting our ideal case studies with straightforward analyses
and conclusions, we mainly show and discuss those examples where
auxiliary data (detailed geology/geomorphology, ground monitoring
data) and/or local/direct knowledge are limited and the assessment
of MTI results is challenging. Such situations will likely be common in
practice, considering that MTI is best exploited (and represents an attractive investigation opportunity) in wide-area applications where
ground monitoring data are typically scarce or unavailable.
Afterwards, focusing on practical aspects, of interest to engineering
geology community, we re-assess i) the limitations of the MTI techniques, as well as their potential to provide, under suitable conditions,
valuable reconnaissance and site-specic information on slope surface
deformations, ii) the challenges in inferring the exact cause(s) of slow
displacements (mmcm/year) commonly registered on radar targets
and the risks of misinterpretation. Furthermore, specic recommendations and a set of guidelines are offered on how to mitigate limitations
of MTI applied to landslide and slope instability investigations and
how to avoid erroneous interpretations of ground deformation measurements obtained from SAR data.
It is argued that to foster a more protable use of these techniques in
landslide investigations additional progress needs to be made in our understanding of small ground surface deformations detected from SAR
data and in their integration with ground-based information. This is
one of the research topics that deserve more attention and effort from
the engineering geology community. Finally, with reference to the upcoming radar satellite launches, future MTI application opportunities
105
and challenges are outlined and recommendations for applied research

priorities are suggested. In particular, it is envisioned that by offering
regular globe-scale coverage, improved temporal resolution (weekly
or better) and freely available imagery, new radar satellite missions
such as the ESA's Sentinel-1 (Berger et al., 2012) will guarantee an
ever increasing and more efcient use of MTI in landslide investigations
(Rucci et al., 2012). These background missions are necessary for longterm, systematic mapping of unstable or potentially unstable slopes
and regional scale assessment of landslide processes. The initial widearea (reconnaissance) approaches can be suitably integrated with high
resolution MTI, providing most valuable information for the spatial
and temporal analyses of slope deformation and a sound basis for derived
products ranging from individual landslide monitoring to regional hazard
identication. Furthermore, thanks to the improving temporal and
spatial resolutions of new generation radar sensors, signicant breakthroughs are expected in detailed slope instability process modeling
(e.g. kinematic and geotechnical models), as well as in the understanding of spatial and temporal patterns of landslide movement/activity and
their relationships to causative or triggering factors (e.g. precipitation,
seismic loading).
2. Background on DInSAR and Multi Temporal Interferometry
2.1. DInSAR and MTI
Principles of space-borne SAR, InSAR and DInSAR have already been
presented in the engineering geology literature (e.g. Colesanti et al.,
2003a; Bovenga et al., 2006; Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006). Thus here
DInSAR is only briey mentioned before focusing on MTI techniques.
Space-borne SARs are active microwave systems capable of recording the electromagnetic signal backscattered from the Earth surface
and arranging it in a 2D complex valued (amplitude and phase) image
map, whose dimensions are the sensortarget distance direction (Line
of Sight LOS or slant range) and the satellite ight direction
(azimuth). With two or more SAR images acquired over the same
area during successive satellite passes it is possible to generate interferograms, i.e. phase difference images. The interferometric phase is
proportional to wavelength () and to the difference between the
two sensortarget distances dR = R1 R2 (see Figure 1) which depends
on: I) the target elevation (h in Figure 1) with respect to a reference
surface (dRtopo); II) the target displacement (dh in Figure 1) occurred between the acquisition times of the two satellite passes (dRdisp); III) the
Fig. 1. Sketch of two SAR acquisitions occurring at successive satellite passes: R is the
sensor-target geometrical distance, h is the target elevation, dh is the target displacement,
and Ratm is the additional path induced by the atmosphere.
106
(see Table 1), DInSAR displacement measurements can potentially

reach millimeter precisions.
However, there are several factors that limit the applicability of
DInSAR to movement detection and monitoring in particular for landslides (e.g. Bovenga et al., 2006; Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006). The
major limitations are caused by incoherent changes in the target backscattering (coherence loss) and atmospheric disturbances, respectively
dRnoise and dRatm in Eq. (1) (Hanssen, 2001). These problems are mitigated by using the Persistent Scatterer (PS) Interferometry (PSI) and other
MTI techniques that rely on processing of long temporal series of SAR
data (usually N15 radar images, Hilley et al., 2004) and identication
of radar targets which provide a backscattered phase signal measurable
through time.
Depending on the different MTI techniques used for the detection
of measurable radar targets (see Section 2.2), these are named persistent scatterers (PS) (Ferretti et al., 2001), coherent scatterers (CS)
refractivity index changes due to the presence of the atmosphere (dRatm);

and IV) decorrelation sources (dRnoise):

dR
4
dRtopo dRdisp dRatm dRnoise :
2
InSAR phase data can be used to produce 3D images of the Earth surface. Furthermore, by isolating the topographic contribution from the
interferometric phase by using independent elevation model, it is possible to detect and measure possible ground surface movements that
occurred between the SAR image acquisitions along the LOS (dRdisp);
this is the basic principle of DInSAR (Hanssen, 2001). From Eq. (1) the
phase sensibility to the movement is /2 thus meaning that, since the
wavelength of the different SAR bands ranges from about 3 to 20 cm
Table 1
Selected characteristics of principal Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors.
Satellite
mission
Wavelength (cm)
Life status
Resolution
az./range (m)
Repeat
cycle (days)
Swath
width (km)
Max. vel.
(cm/yr)
Incident
Angle(o)
C-band
ERS-1/2
5.6
19922001
6/24
35
ENVISAT
5.6
20032010
6/24
35
100
14.6
23
100
14.6
1944
20.4
2050
20.4
2050
85
3046
163.2
2055
45 (fine)
100 (strip)
200 (scan)
10 (spot)
40 (strip)
200 (scan)
RADARSAT-1
5.5
1995
830
24
RADARSAT-2
5.5
2007
3/3
8/8
26/25
24
Sentinel-1
5.6
20142024
520
6, 12
250
RADARSAT
Constellation
Mission
(3 Sat)
5.5
20182026
550
3, 12
30350
L-band
J-ERS
23.5
19921998
18
44
75
48.7
35
ALOS
PALSAR
23.6
20062011
5/788
46
4070
46.8
860
22.9
20132017
1/3
310/310
100/100
14
25 (spot)
5070 (strip)
350 (scan)
149.2
870
23.5
20142021
1050
8, 16
20150
268
2050
ALOS PALSAR-2
SAOCOM
(2 Sat)
X-band
COSMOSkyMED
(4 Sat)
3.1
20072014
2.5/2.5
1.0/1.0
2, 4, 8, 16
10 (spot)
40 (strip)
200 (scan)
17.7
35.4
70.7
141.4
2060
TerraSAR-X
3.1
20072018
3.3/2.8
1.0/1.0
11
10 (spot)
30 (strip)
100 (scan)
25.7
2055
COSMOSkyMED-2
(2 Sat)
3.1
20152023
13
1040
TerraSAR-X-2
3.1
20152018
0.54
1040
Note: Future missions shown in gray.
(e.g. Berardino et al., 2003), slowly-decorrelating ltered phase (SDFP)

targets (Hooper, 2008) or distributed scatterers (DS) (e.g. Ferretti et al.,
2011). These targets differ for the scattering mechanism involved in
the interaction with the SAR signal (see Section 2.2), and they can
induce different levels of DInSAR phase decorrelation. For the sake of
simplicity, and keeping in mind the typical background of this journal
readership, in the following we refer to all the measurable targets as coherent targets (CT), regardless of the above-mentioned differences.
Therefore, in this context the coherence is not intended in the interferometric sense, but reects the more general property of the target to be
measurable through time.
MTI processing requires the joint non-linear estimation of stochastic
elds due to atmospheric signal, displacements and errors in the reference topography. In short, the atmospheric signal estimation is performed thanks to its stochastic behavior which is known to be totally
uncorrelated in time but correlated in the space domain, with a powerlaw spatial frequency spectrum. The case of the displacement eld is
much more complicated, because ground deformations are expected to
have certain correlation properties both in time and space. Moreover, a
reliable discrimination of the two types of contributions requires careful
consideration of both signals' characteristics, such as typical spatial
temporal scales.
At the end of the MTI processing, the inter-image coherence, [0,1]
is provided as a statistical measure of the phase stability. It is related to the
standard deviation, , of the phase residuals obtained after removing
all the estimated signal components (dRtopo, dRdisp, dRatm in Eq. (1)):
the higher , the lower . In the hypothesis of negligible processing
errors (mainly due to unreliable deformation model and inaccurate
orbital records), values measure the decorrelation degree within the
resolution cell (dRnoise), and are used to select CT by simply using a proper
threshold: (x,y) N th.
For each CT the MTI processing outcomes are: i) LOS displacement
time series; ii) mean LOS velocity (or equivalent LOS displacement),
and iii) the rened elevation estimates.
2.2. MTI techniques
Since 2000, several methods of high precision detection of long-term
ground surface deformation signal have been developed and successfully applied to study various geophysical phenomena (e.g. Sansosti et al.,
2010; Hooper et al., 2012). These algorithms are designed to overcome
the main limitations of DInSAR (temporal/geometrical decorrelation,
atmospheric artifacts) by exploiting long series of radar images processed
according to different strategies that can be grouped in two main
categories:
the Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) (Ferretti et al., 2001),
and similar techniques (Werner et al., 2003; Duro et al., 2004;
Hooper et al., 2004; Bovenga et al., 2005; Kampes, 2005; van der
Kooij et al., 2006; Crosetto et al, 2008), relying on the phase information from single isolated objects characterized by a high temporal
phase stability; this approach is usually implemented by computing
differential interferograms of all the acquisitions with respect to the
same reference (master) image, and then performing advanced phase
analyses on the pixels exhibiting stable SAR response throughout the
stack of images;
the Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) and related methods that exploit
more spatially distributed information in differential interferograms
obtained from pairs of images with the best values of spatial baseline
(e.g. below a certain threshold) and then, after some spatial ltering,
infer, using various procedures (Least Mean Squares, Singular Value
Decomposition), the connected time series of phase values due to
deformation (Berardino et al., 2002; Mora et al., 2003; Usai, 2003).
While the PSI is optimized for resolution cells dominated by a single
scatterer, the SBAS focuses on distributed scatterers (without any dominant element within the resolution cell), which are more sensible to
107
both temporal and volume decorrelation than PS. According to these

properties considerable differences in number and spatial distribution
of the measurable targets can occur depending on the scattering characteristics of the ground surface (e.g. Lauknes et al., 2010).
Furthermore, new advanced processing strategies have recently
been proposed for efciently combining PSI and SBAS approaches,
thereby extending the analysis to both isolated and distributed targets
(Hooper, 2008; Ferretti et al., 2011). The main advantage of such hybrid
approaches is the increase in number of measurable radar targets,
which leads to the improved spatial sampling of the investigated deformation phenomenon and hence better reliability of the MTI results. In
fact, by decreasing the distance between the neighboring targets, the
probability of phase aliasing decreases as well, making the processing
more robust.
The MTI development is continuing and we recall here the approaches that are aimed at improving the processing reliability by
rened 3D phase unwrapping algorithms (Pepe and Lanari, 2006;
Costantini et al., 2010; Fornaro et al., 2011; Hooper et al., 2012) and at
discriminating multiple scattering mechanisms within the resolution
cell (Fornaro et al., 2009). For further technical information on MTI
the interested reader is referred to radar remote sensing literature.
Finally, our case study examples presented in the following sections
were obtained by using the SPINUA (Stable Point INterferometry over
Unurbanized Areas) MTI algorithm. This PSI-like algorithm was originally developed for detection and monitoring of CT targets in non- or
scarcely-urbanized areas (Bovenga et al., 2005; Bovenga et al., 2006).
The algorithm has been updated in order to increase its exibility also
in case of the applications involving densely urbanized areas, as well
as to assure proper processing of high resolution X-band data from
both CSK and TSX (Bovenga et al., 2012a).
In particular, the SPINUA algorithm includes a patch-wise processing
scheme that relies on processing small zones (usually a few km2) within
whole radar image. The patches are selected with the aim to optimize
the density and the distribution of potential CT. Their small size allows
using locally an approximate model for the atmospheric phase signal,
which in turn ensures high processing robustness. Such ad hoc solutions
adopted by SPINUA enable obtaining quickly results on small areas by
processing also scarcely populated stack of SAR images (e.g. Nitti et al.,
2009a; Bovenga et al., 2012a). Moreover, in case of local scale analysis,
this approach results particularly robust against phase unwrapping
errors occurring where CT density is low. When dealing with large
areas, atmospheric phase residuals are interpolated through a kriging
procedure, and an ad hoc integration scheme is used to properly stitch
the displacement maps retrieved on the single patches. SPINUA has
been successfully applied to investigate different geophysical phenomena
including landslides, subsidence processes and post-seismic deformations (e.g. Bovenga et al., 2006; Nitti et al., 2009b; Reale et al., 2011). Furthermore, the results have been cross compared with those derived by
using other MTI techniques, as well as validated by using measurements
from both GPS/GNSS (Global Positioning System/Global Navigation
Satellite System) and leveling (e.g. Wasowski et al., 2007a; Reale et al.,
2011; Bovenga et al., 2013).
2.3. Technical and practical issues of MTI applied to landslide investigations
There are many different factors that have to be properly taken into
account when considering the use of SAR interferometry in landslide
studies. These are listed below and discussed with the aim to improve
end users awareness of the limitations and opportunities offered by
MTI (see also Tables 1 and 2 in Part 4).
2.3.1. CT selection, coherence threshold, number of images
Variation of MTI processing parameters can signicantly inuence
the number and distributions of CT. The selection of CT is generally performed according to coherence which accounts for the residual phase
noise remaining after subtracting all the signal sources. Its signicance
108
depends mainly on: i) the discrepancy between the model adopted for
the displacement estimation and the actual deformations; and ii) the
reliability of the estimates based on this model which, in turn, is inuenced by both the number and the spatial distribution of CT, and the
number of images.
A low number of CT, or their non-uniform distribution over the radar
image, can hamper a reliable estimation of atmospheric signal and/or
displacements eld, even though the model assumptions are correct.
A density 5 CT/km2 can be considered as a minimum requirement
(e.g. Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006) even when using algorithms optimized for scarcely urbanized areas, which adopt robust estimation of
atmospheric signal over small patches of land (Bovenga et al, 2005).
Given a particular conguration of spatial and temporal baselines, a
certain probability exists that a fraction of selected CT pixels do not actually correspond to coherent objects, because random phase values
fortuitously give an estimated higher than the threshold. This false
alarm probability is inversely proportional to the threshold and to
the number of acquisitions available in the stack, although the particular
distribution of spatial and temporal baselines also inuences the results.
Given the conguration of spatial and temporal baselines and the expected average density of CT, the value of threshold which guarantees
an acceptable false alarm probability can be evaluated by simulations
(Colesanti et al., 2003a; Bovenga et al., 2006). Higher threshold values
imply lower false alarm rates (higher reliability), but also lower absolute numbers of selected CT. Moreover, a minimum number of images
is required to set a reliable threshold. This number depends on the
sensor parameters, on the precision required for the displacement
estimation (Bovenga et al., 2012a), and on the adopted MTI algorithm.
For PSI approaches relying on medium resolution SAR missions
(e.g. ENVISAT) the minimum number of images is about 1520
(Colesanti et al., 2003b; Hilley et al., 2004), while for higher resolution
sensors e.g. CosmoSkyMed (CSK), TerraSAR-X (TSX), it can be decreased (Bovenga et al., 2012a). The issue of proper selection of CT
was recently discussed by Riddick et al. (2012) with reference to the
application of StaMPS algorithm. They presented a method for optimizing the selection of CT, with focus on the minimization of false positives
and negatives in different natural terrains.
2.3.2. CT density and articial reectors (AR)

Apart from the inuence of the adopted MTI algorithm and processing parameters, the density of CT depends heavily on the ground cover,
being, in general, the highest over urban areas thanks to the abundance
of articial structures with coherent backscattering (this issue is further
discussed in Section 3.1). There is growing evidence that high resolution
data from RADARSAT-2, TSX and CSK lead to a signicant increase in the
number of potential CT with respect to the data from medium resolution missions (ERS1/2, ENVISAT, RADARSAT-1). Regarding the X-band
sensors, for the Stripmap acquisition mode several studies documented
CT density increases between ve to more than ten times depending on
the land use (Crosetto et al., 2010; Prati et al., 2010; Bovenga et al.,
2012a; Duro et al., 2012; Bovenga et al., 2013). The highest densities
are obtained using Spotlight acquisitions; more than 100,000 CT/km2
can be detected over urban areas (e.g. Bamler et al., 2009), but very
high density (70,000 CT/km2) can be found also on bare soil (e.g. Nitti
et al., 2013).
So far only few studies have provided indications on CT densities
that can be obtained from MTI processing of high resolution RADARSAT-2
imagery. The results of a joint exploitation of Ultrane beam mode
RADARSAT-2 (3 m resolution) and TSX (Stripmap) data to study three
unstable rock slopes in Norway indicated a comparably good performance (Dehls et al., 2012). Furthermore, by considering an urban test
area, Duro et al. (2012) showed that nearly six times greater CT density
(10,649 CT/km 2 ) can be obtained from high resolution (3 m, Fine
mode) RADARSAT-2 data with respect to 8 m Image mode ENVISAT
imagery (1793 CT/km2).
There is limited information in the literature on the CT densities

obtainable from L-band MTI. Duro et al. (2012) studied MTI performance
in a limited areal extent mountainous area by using 12 ALOS, 88 ENVISAT
and 14 TSX images. The processing of L-band data resulted in 3 times
greater CT density (553 CT/km2) with respect to C-band data. Although
the CT density from TSX data was much higher (4644 CT/km2), Duro
et al. (2012) demonstrated that thanks to the better capacity to preserve
coherence in vegetated areas L-band provided more uniform distribution
of CT. Furthermore, from a case study regarding a sparsely urbanized
mountainous catchment (47 km2) with a predominant grass and shrub
cover (53% of total area), Herrera et al. (2013) reported up to 32 times
higher CT density from L-band data (ALOS) with respect to C-band
(ENVISAT); for the same area, the CT density from X-band data resulted
2.7 times greater with respect to L-band.
Finally, articial reectors (AR) can be used in slope areas lacking
natural CT (e.g. Froese et al., 2008; Wenxue et al., 2010; Bovenga et al.,
2012b; Crosetto et al., 2013). An AR network can be designed and
deployed to cover the area of interest with reliable spatial density.
Moreover, their relative positioning can be properly set to guarantee a
good sensitivity to the relative motions within the landslide and a feasible signal analysis concerning in particular the suppression of the atmospheric component. AR redundancy can also be considered to guarantee
better reliability and precision of the measurements. The main drawbacks with respect to the standard MTI are: i) the need of in situ work
(both for AR deployment and periodical surveillance) and potential
difculties in site access; ii) the exposure to vandalism; and iii) the
impossibility to exploit archived dataset.
AR of limited size can now be adopted thanks to both short wavelength and high resolution of X-band data (Bovenga et al., 2012b).
This in part reduces the problems related to transportation in harsh
environment and vandalism.
2.3.3. CT geocoding accuracy
Thanks to the high quality of elevation estimates (less than 1 m)
(Perissin and Rocca, 2006; Nitti et al., 2013) the CT can be accurately
geocoded and superimposed on high resolution optical images or topographic maps to correctly locate corresponding man-made or natural
structures on the ground (e.g. Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006). It is
also convenient to use Google Earth tools for rapid display and analysis
of CT data (e.g. Bovenga et al., 2012a).
High geocoding accuracy is important especially for site specic
applications (e.g. geotechnical assessments of landslide hazards when
people/infrastructure are at risk). The spatial resolution of the nal
MTI products reects that of the original SAR images (cf. Table 1) and,
in general, geocoding errors vary according to the pixel size (i.e. from
~13 m to ~ 20 m, respectively for high and medium resolution imagery). Some algorithms (SBAS-like) also provide intermediate products
with lower resolution (typically about 80 m), which have been used
for wide-area reconnaissance analysis. However, the practical utility of
such coarse products may be limited only to regional investigations
with focus on very large slope failures.
2.3.4. Different types of CT
The distinction between different types of natural and articial
objects that may act as CT is of interest as it can help the proper interpretation of the MTI results. Such distinction will be more relevant in local
(slope) scale investigations and easier to achieve in case of high resolutions MTI products (smaller geocoding errors).
For example, it is apparent that the motion pattern of CT from a
damaged building on an unstable slope could be more complex with
respect to that of the slope itself. Also CT from a rock debris overlying
an unstable rock slope may show differential (autonomous) movements
as compared to bedrock CT.
The discrimination of CT characterized by reections from ground
(soil/rock) surface level can be facilitated by exploiting information
about their relative elevation. Similarly, local height data can be used
to distinguish between CT corresponding to roofs or walls of a building.

High resolution optical imagery is of great help in these cases.
In addition to the radar target height information, CT classication
can also benet from amplitude pattern and, if available, polarization
data. For instance, in Perissin and Ferretti (2007) CT were associated
to ground-level targets, elevated targets, poles, dihedrals, and trihedrals.
Different approaches for MTI target characterization were also well
illustrated in a recent work by Dheenathayalan et al. (2012).
Finally, recently proposed advanced MTI algorithms are capable to
identify different coherent scattering phenomena by exploring the
SAR amplitude statistics (e.g. Parizzi and Brcic, 2011; Fornaro et al.,
2012). These approaches, not only improve the MTI performance, but
also provide a tool to distinguish between dominant and distributed
natural structures.
2.3.5. Deformation model

MTI algorithms adopt different strategies not only in the selection of
CT, but also in the multi-dimensional analysis of the interferometric
phase needed to suppress the atmospheric component and to measure
the displacement signal. According to the algorithm, the nal results can
depend on both the model adopted for the deformation and the selected
reference CT. Although, an input deformation model is not always required by MTI algorithms (e.g. Hooper et al., 2004), most often linear
kinematics are assumed for the displacements, especially where ground
information is lacking (e.g. regional-scale investigations). However,
non-linear components of deformation have to be taken in to account,
when, for example, long time periods are considered, or high resolution
X-band data are used (for possible thermal dilation movements on
urban areas) (Monserrat et al., 2011). In areas with strong non-linear
displacements, the MTI products may lack CTs and signicantly underestimate the movement velocity, because the linear model does not t
the actual phase trend.
2.3.6. Aliasing problem and maximum detectable velocity

InSAR phase samples are 2-wrapped. This means that it is no possible to measure unambiguously phase differences N which corresponds
to LOS deformation N/4. This constraint limits the measurable displacement velocity (v):
vb
vmax :
4 dt
Since aliasing applies to phase difference both in space (between CT

pairs) and time (between consecutive acquisitions dt), it is difcult to
provide a general gure for the maximum detectable velocity: it depends on i) the spatial gradient of the deformation, ii) the CT spatial
sampling, and iii) the temporal sampling of the acquisitions, which
is the only a priori known parameter. Therefore, in the following we
use the maximum velocity between neighboring CT as reference value
(cf. Table 1), which can also be considered as a lower bound limit.
In case of very fast displacements, the temporal coherence decreases
leading to the loss of CT even when the deformation model adopted by
the MTI algorithm is correct. However, a false CT detection can occur in
case of short-term acceleration (e.g. sudden slide movement triggered
by intense rainfall), resulting in a phase discontinuity in the order of
few 2 phase shifts; this in turn causes unwrapping errors. In such
cases, the target temporal coherence is preserved and the actual movement underestimated leading to false (negative) detection (Notti et al.,
2012a).
One should also keep in mind that most often MTI processing generates average yearly estimates of displacement velocity. This implies that
faster (or slower) non-linear movement episodes tend to be averaged
out (maximum velocity underestimated).
109
2.3.7. Reference point selection

A relevant peculiarity of MTI is that the products depend on the
characteristic of the InSAR phase which is relative in time and space.
In order to transform the differential phase values to absolute displacement values, a reference point is required both in time (usually the date
of acquisition of the master SAR image), and in space (reference point).
The latter is a CT selected within the radar scene area, whose stability is
known e.g. from independent GNSS or other in situ measurements, or
can be inferred on the basis of local geomorphologic/geological characteristics. While the reference time adds only an offset on the displacement time trend, the reference CT selection has direct inuence on the
identication of stable and unstable areas. Moreover, if the reference
CT is affected by periodic displacements due to, for instance, thermal dilation, these oscillations may propagate to other CT time series (Notti
et al., 2012a). In some areas (e.g. those with high rate of tectonic deformations), motionless reference points may not be available. In those
cases the MTI analysis can be done by using a reference CT whose 3D
motion is known. Finally, some regional scale investigations may
require the use of more than one reference point.
2.3.8. 3D deformations vs. LOS measurements
DInSAR techniques measure only the component of the actual
displacement along the satellite LOS. The full 3-D displacement vector
can be recovered by using at least three independent InSAR datasets (corresponding to non-coplanar acquisition geometries), or by exploiting
additional assumptions on ground motion. SAR satellites operate on nearly polar orbits providing mainly two independent InSAR measurements
on opposite pass directions (ascending or descending). This limits the displacement vector measurement to the plane orthogonal to the approximately southnorth direction, with sensibility to vertical and horizontal
components which depends on the sensor look angle (Hanssen, 2001).
Furthermore, some missions such as CSK constellation are able to
provide acquisitions with two incidence angles on ascending and descending passes with the radar both left- and right-looking. According
to Wright et al. (2004), this potentially allows the derivation of the
southnorth deformation with an error twice as large as the error in
radar range direction. However, the availability of acquisitions with
these multi-geometries is very limited as such data are only occasionally
collected under a specic request.
Finally, recent high resolution satellites make possible displacement
measurements along the azimuth direction (approximately south
north), based on amplitude cross correlation (Bamler and Eineder,
2005) or spectral diversity (Erten et al., 2010). The results, however,
are characterized by lower precision with respect to MTI products.
2.3.9. Geometrical distortions
The application of DInSAR techniques to landslide monitoring is
further complicated because of the geometrical distortions induced by
the side looking acquisition mode typical of SAR sensors. In Fig. 2 the acquisition geometry is sketched for the case of descending satellite pass
and slopes facing east. The LOS and the slope are dened respectively
by the angles and measured with respect to the vertical direction,
and the orbital vector and the aspect are dened respectively by the angles and measured clockwise from the north. On image pixels affected by either layover or shadowing (Hanssen, 2001) the SAR signal is
useless and, consequently, the visibility of the area affected by the instability depends on its local slope geometry, described by the aspect and
inclination with respect to the LOS. Starting from orbit information
and Digital Elevation Model (DEM), a radar visibility map can be derived
(e.g. Colombo et al, 2006; Cascini et al., 2009; Notti et al., 2010). This is
useful for a preliminary inspection aimed at dening areas suitable to
DInSAR monitoring, as well as for selecting the best available acquisition
geometry (ascending or descending passes). In practice, topographic
congurations of mountainous areas affected by slope instability often
limit the measurements only to single acquisition geometry.
110
Fig. 2. Acquisition geometry in case of descending pass and slopes facing east.
2.3.10. SAR missions and data characteristics

Currently, different space-borne SAR data in L-, C- and X-band are
available for InSAR applications. In Table 1, starting from 1992, several
satellite missions are listed including the historical ones, currently operational and those foreseen in the near future. We provide information
about wavelength, life status, spatial resolution, repeat cycle, swath
width and incident angle. Multiple values are indicated when different
SAR imaging modes (e.g. ScanSAR, Stripmap, Spotlight) or acquisition
geometries are available.
In particular, the European Space Agency (ESA) missions ERS-1/2
(European Remote Sensing satellites) and ENVISAT (Environmental
Satellite) archived a large amount of data acquired from 1992 to
2011 in C-band (about 5 cm of wavelength), at medium resolution
(5 20 m 2 ). This precious archive allows retrospective studies of
ground instability almost all over the Earth. The RADARSAT-1/2 satellites
of the Canadian Space Agency are operational, providing C-band data at
both medium and high resolutions (up to 3 m with RADARSAT-2). Furthermore, Sentinel-1 mission (a constellation of two satellites) has been
developed by ESA to secure the continuity of the C-band SAR operational
applications in the framework of GMES program, and should be lunched
in 2014.
L-band data (about 23 cm of wavelength) were provided in the past
by the Japanese Space Agency JAXA missions J-ERS and ALSOS PALSAR.
The upcoming L-band missions, the JAXA's ALOS PALSAR-2, and the
Argentinean CONAE SAOCOM constellation, are foreseen in 2014.
Finally, of great interest are the new generation SAR sensors, namely
Cosmo-SkyMed of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and TSX of the German
Space Agency (DLR), which operate in X-band (about 3 cm of wavelength). Thanks to the improved capabilities of these sensors in terms of
both resolution (from 3 to 1 m) and revisit time (from 11 to 4 days),
signicant advances in the measurement precision and sensitivity are
possible.
2.3.11. Performance of L/C/X band MTI in terms of movement monitoring

Wavelength, revisit time and spatial resolution have inuence on
the quality of MTI products. Bovenga et al. (2012a) presented a theoretical model which allows assessing the impact of radiometric and geometric parameters on the precision of the MTI estimates. The phase
noise decreases as the wavelength decreases and the resolution increases, while the error on nal velocity estimation depends also on
the number of acquisitions and the investigated time span. In particular,
the model shows that with the higher resolution X-band sensors
reliable estimates of the displacement rates are possible i) using fewer

SAR scenes than in the case of C/L-band medium resolution data for
the same time span, or ii) using more images acquired in a narrower
time span. This holds in particular in the case of landslide monitoring
which typically targets phenomena of limited size (slope scale), not
affected by low frequency large scale signals (atmosphere and orbital
errors). The practical implication is that landslide assessment based on
monitoring results can be obtained in a shorter time (few months),
which can be particularly relevant in high risk situations. Moreover,
this provides the possibility to exploit MTI for monitoring mountainous
areas during short periods without or with limited snow coverage, thus
maximizing the chance to have coherent backscattering from slopes of
interest.
Duro et al. (2012) presented an interesting comparative analysis of
MTI results obtained by using L-, C-, and X-band data. They found that
with shorter wavelengths the measurable velocities decrease according
to Eq. (2), but at the same time the sensitivity to LOS displacements is
increased together with the capability of detecting very low (mm/yr)
displacement rates; this is of practical signicance for the timely detection
of pre- and post-failure slope movements related to landslide processes.
Moreover, the aliasing constraint (Eq. (2)), which is also inuenced by
the revisit time, can be considerably relaxed using the data from the latest
X-band missions. This implies the possibility of detecting higher vmax
values in X-band than in C-band, at least for the currently available SAR
data (see Table 1). The performance of C-band MTI will soon improve
thanks to the upcoming Sentinel-1 mission that responds to the specic
requirements of InSAR monitoring (Rucci et al., 2012).
2.3.12. High resolution X-band data and new application possibilities

The recently available (as of 2007) X-band data provide a possibility
of new applications thanks to the high spatial resolution (~ 3 m for
stripmap mode, ~ 1 m for spotlight mode), the reduced revisit time
(11 days for TSX, up to 4 days for CSK constellation for images with
the same look angle (ASI, 2007)) and the short wavelengths. This
means: i) feasibility of more detailed scale ground/slope instability assessments, ii) better temporal resolution for hazard monitoring
(e.g. Bovenga et al., 2012a), iii) improved capability of detection
and mapping structural stability of buildings, and infrastructure (bridges,
railways and highways), and iv) possibility of generating more accurate
DEMs. These improvements, however, require more efforts in terms of
processing complexity. Moreover, the shorter revisit time, less than one
eighth of the ERS/ENVISAT orbital repeat cycle in the CSK case, allows
building interferometric stacks for MTI techniques up to eight times

faster. This means more timely delivery of the interferometric products
to the user. The X-band operating frequency also enables more precise
detection of extremely slow ground movements with respect to C band
because of the smaller wavelength (~3 cm).
2.3.13. MTI measurement precision
Quantication of MTI measurement precision is a complex issue due
to the presence of critical, non linear processing steps. Sub-millimeter
accuracy was reported from controlled experiments conducted in
ideal settings (e.g. Ferretti et al., 2007). Theoretical precision of measurements (based on processing statistics and best case scenario) can
be similarly high (e.g. Duro et al., 2012). Comparisons with independent
measurements (such as leveling, GNSS) demonstrate that the achievable accuracy is of about 5 mm for a single displacement measurement
and around 1 mm/yr for the average displacement rate (e.g. Casu et al.,
2006; Ferretti et al., 2007; Bovenga et al., 2013).
However, the quality of measurements depends also on the environmental setting of the study area and the temporal distribution of the
available SAR acquisitions. In general, the measurement precision is
lower in case of i) signicant vegetation coverage which reduces the
CT spatial density, and ii) high-steep topography which often induces
major atmospheric signals. Moreover, the distance from the reference
CT also impacts the reliability of the MTI estimates depending on the
specic algorithm adopted for the atmospheric signal removal. For instance, Casu et al. (2006) indicated an increase of the standard deviation
of the displacement estimates of about 0.05 mm/km moving away from
the reference CT.
In the ideal setting (absence of temporal and spatial aliasing), the
major contribution to precision loss comes from the low spatial frequency
signals due to atmospheric noise and orbital errors (Rucci et al., 2012).
Regional scale analysis of signals from glacial rebound or tectonic movements require additional geodetic measurements (e.g. from GNSS networks) to calibrate MTI results, while these effects are less critical in
case of phenomena of limited extension such as landslides.
2.4. Quality, reliability and validation of MTI products (assessments using
cross-comparisons and ground truth)
2.4.1. General
These issues have been tackled either on an individual basis by various groups that use different MTI processing approaches (e.g. Casu
et al., 2006; Ferretti et al., 2007; Marinkovic et al., 2008) and proprietary
software or through ESA sponsored, special projects involving several
scientic and commercial partners e.g. Terrarma Validation Experiment (Terrarma, 2007), the Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Codes
Cross Comparison and Certication (PSIC4) for long term differential
interferometry project (Raucoules et al., 2009). However, the great
majority of the published examples of rigorous data quality assessments
regard MTI measurements of generally at areas affected by subsidence
caused by mining/gas extraction or local settlements in urban areas
(e.g. Crosetto et al., 2007; Hanssen et al., 2008.). The literature offers
fewer cases that clearly show how MTI displacement results regarding
slope and landslide processes can be evaluated with the aid of ground
monitoring data (e.g. Berardino et al., 2003; Bovenga et al., 2013).
2.4.2. Factors that inuence the quality of MTI products
Rigorous quality assessment of MTI results can be a complex task requiring adoption of different validation procedures depending on the
type of deformation phenomenon, available ground truth and ground
surface characteristics (e.g. Hanssen et al., 2008). Furthermore, during
the radar data processing stage a number of implicit assumptions are
made, some of which study area- and method-specic, and this tends
to limit the reproducibility of MTI results. As stressed by Mahapatra
et al. (2012), this and the fact that the nal output depends on a large
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variety of factors call for very careful and transparent quality assessment of MTI results.
Following Hanssen (2005) and Mahapatra et al. (2012), the factors
that inuence the quality of MTI products can be grouped in four
major categories:
i) Original radar data and their products (CT), and specically:
number and quality of images
temporal distribution (homogeneity/gaps)
temporal extent of image stack
number and quality of scatterers (CT)
spatial distribution of CT (homogeneity/gaps)
ii) Characteristics of the physical process
temporally/spatially smooth signal versus the presence of
abrupt variations in time/space
temporal and spatial extent
iii) Processing technique (PSI, SBAS, hybrid)
iv) A priori assumptions concerning:
choice of deformation model (e.g. linear)
CT detection method
atmosphere dynamics.
Given the large number of the variables involved, it is not surprising
that, even when exploiting the same radar datasets, different MTI approaches can lead to somewhat different results in terms of number
(and quality) of CT, their spatial distributions, and temporal trends of
displacements. In general, better quality MTI products (and CT) can be
obtained with higher number of images, homogenous temporal distribution of acquisitions and longer temporal extent of image stack. The
number and quality of CT (and hence quality of MTI products) depends
directly on the coherence () threshold used for their selection; thus
represents a useful quality indicator. While high CT density is desirable
to assure better coverage of AOI, there is a trade-off between the number and quality of CT (lowering coherence thresholds leads to greater
amount of CT, but their quality decreases). In addition, due to natural
variability of land cover and environmental conditions, coherence and,
therefore, quality of CT varies spatially within a given AOI. End users
have to be fully aware of this and other quality/precision issues in
order to avoid possible over interpretation of the MTI results.
2.4.3. Assessments of MTI results quality using cross-comparisons and
ground truth
In summary, depending on the type of investigation and availability
of different SAR imagery and ground data, the following consistency
checks of the MTI measurement results can be attempted:
i) using both dual mode (ascending and descending) data from the
same SAR sensor (acquired over the same area); with such independent data even simple qualitative comparisons of the results
are very useful; with a sufcient number of ascending and descending CT, ideally corresponding to the same targets on the
ground (e.g. the same buildings), a quantitative assessment of
product quality can be attempted (Bovenga et al., 2013)
ii) comparisons of MTI results similarity using data from different
sensors (e.g. Bovenga et al., 2012a, 2013; Duro et al., 2012);
iii) intercomparisons involving independent results based on different MTI processing techniques (e.g. Wasowski et al., 2007a;
Lauknes et al., 2010; Bovenga et al., 2013)
iv) validation of MTI results using ground truth e.g. GPS, leveling
data (e.g. Raucoules et al., 2009 and references therein).
These various ways of assessing and validation of MTI results are illustrated by Bovenga et al. (2013), who recently studied the Assisi landslide, Italy. In this case a series of the result checks was possible thanks
to the availability of different sensor data, including both ascending and
descending C-band ENVISAT imagery, the Stripmap CSK, the independent MTI results obtained through the use of two different processing
algorithms (PSI-like SPINUA and SBAS-like TSIA), and high quality GPS
112
monitoring data. Firstly, two displacement maps, derived by processing

39 ENVISAT descending acquisitions through i SPINUA and TISIA
algorithms, were compared on common CTs selected as those having
a relative distance shorter than 10 m. The mean and the standard deviation of the differences between the mean LOS velocity values were
0.3 mm/yr and 0.4 mm/yr respectively. Then the same displacement
maps were also compared with the mean velocities obtained in situ
on 14 GNSS measurement points and projected along the LOS. Fig. 3
shows the displacement mean velocities derived by SPINUA and by
GNSS. The displacement information from MTI and GNSS correlate
very well both on the stable and unstable areas. Moreover, the temporal
displacement trends derived from GNSS conrm the linearity of the
temporal trends measured on the SAR CTs.
Two other displacement maps were derived by using SPINUA algorithm and processing two CSK datasets made of 17 and 20 images acquired along descending and ascending passes respectively. The mean
LOS velocity values are sketched in Fig. 4A and B. As expected, thanks
to the high resolution, CSK MTI processing provided high CT density
(1800/km2 for ascending and 3600/km2 for descending), being over
ve and ten times greater than the density derived from ENVISAT
data. In order to compare the precision of the results from different sensors, the mean velocity standard deviations were computed, resulting in
about 0.2 mm/yr for the ENVISAT dataset and about 0.4 mm/yr for both
the CSK datasets. The lower precision of the CSK results was expected
because of the limited number of images and the narrower time span.
By coupling results from descending and ascending CSK it was also
possible to derive horizontal and vertical displacement maps (Figure
4C and D), which were compared to the GNSS 3D measurements. In
particular, a strong horizontal component of the movement, following
approximately the maximum slope, was consistently shown by both
MTI and GNSS.
3. MTI applications in landslide investigations

3.1. Feasibility assessments
3.1.1. General
The basic requirement for a successful MTI application is the availability of a sufcient number of CT. High CT density, as well as their
Fig. 3. Distribution of the average line of sight (LOS) velocities obtained by processing ENVISAT data (dots) and GNSS records (squares). Symbol colors are representative of the velocity
according to the color bar (top of gure). The landslide limits shown in red.
After Bovenga et al. (2013). Background image from Google Earth.
113
Fig. 4. Distribution and mean LOS velocity of coherent targets (CT) detected through SPINUA algorithm by processing X-band CSK data acquired along descending (A) and ascending passes
(B). Distribution of the eastward (C) and upward (D) components of movement.
Background image from Google Earth.
uniform spatial distribution are desirable, because it implies good

coverage of AOI and fewer information gaps.
Slope aspect and inclination have direct impact on the presence
and distribution of CT, and on the radar sensor sensitivity to downslope movements. Simple guidelines for a rapid assessment of suitability of ERS data for DInSAR-based ground displacement monitoring in mountainous settings were given in Colesanti and
Wasowski (2006; cf. their Figure 2, Table 1). The conditions of
suitability, as well as limitations related to layover, shadowing

and foreshorting effects, were dened with reference to descending and ascending acquisition geometries, slope angles and facing
directions.
In general terms, the descending and ascending geometries are
favorable, respectively, for west and east facing slopes. Furthermore,
when both descending and ascending acquisitions are available the limitations related to topography (layover, shadowing) can be signicantly
114
reduced. Note that foreshorting impacts mainly on the percentage of

down-slope movement that radar can measure along LOS.
However, landslides are local scale features and it is often the spatial
distribution of CT over the slopes of interest that has critical impact on
the practical utility of the MTI results. Clearly, also at slope scale higher
densities and more uniform distributions of CT facilitate interpretability
of the ground displacement results for landslide assessment (this issue
is further dealt with in Section 4).
The available literature shows that number and spatial distributions
of CT can be region- or site-specic and hence not simple to predict in
advance. In general, urbanized areas with limited vegetation cover
represent the most suitable settings and guarantee high CT densities
(e.g. Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006). Urban/peri-urban slopes and landslides are thus very good targets for MTI applications. Also slopes with
abundant rock outcrops are generally very suitable. Elsewhere, a priori
assessments of MTI applicability in a specic AOI affected by slope
failures are useful, especially in case of local scale investigations.
The importance of pre-survey suitability assessment of the DInSAR
method for landslide monitoring has recently been discussed by Plank
et al. (2012a). They presented a GIS-based procedure to accurately
predict areas where layover and shadowing will occur. Their GIS application also allows estimating the percentage of movement of a potential
landslide that can be measured by DInSAR.
3.1.2. A priori assessments of MTI applicability
Perhaps the rst published example of region-wide systematic a
priori feasibility assessment was reported by Colombo et al. (2006),
who investigated over 4300 km2 mountainous area in northern Italy.
The methodology consisted of the following three steps:
i) Delimitation of layover and shadowing areas by considering ERS
sensor geometry and slope aspect and inclination information
derived from DEM, according to the approach described by
Kropatsch and Strobl (1990), and generation of radar visibility
map;
ii) Delimitation of broad areas with different probabilities (qualitative
ranking) of obtaining CT, by exploiting existing land cover/use
maps and literature-based knowledge of backscattering characteristics of natural and man-made terrains;
iii) Combining the information layers from steps i) and ii) and zonation of the study area with reference to relative suitability for
MTI investigation.
Colombo et al. (2006) distinguished ve classes with probabilities of
obtaining CT that ranged from excellent to nearly null. Subsequently,
they demonstrated the reliability of the feasibility assessment by considering the actual distributions and CT densities generated via PSInSAR
processing of ERS imagery acquired in the period 19922000.
In particular, the excellent probability class resulted in very high
average densities (1159 CT/km2 for buildings and infrastructure, and
295 CT/km2 for rock outcrops). The good probability class (Alpine
meadows) had also appreciable density (115 CT/km2), which was
explained by the presence of relatively low and scarce vegetation that
made locally visible the underlying rocks. The limited and scarce probability classes, respectively grass land/cultivated land including orchards and wood land, had signicantly lower density (3432 CT/km2
and 28 CT/km2). Still lower average CT densities were encountered in
the nearly null probability class (water bodies and glaciers). Furthermore, only 4 CT/km2 was found in the layover-shadowing areas, thus
conrming the consistency of the radar visibility mapping approach.
The scientic literature provides several other examples of a priori
MTI feasibility assessments. A brief review is warranted here in order
to highlight the results obtained for different environmental settings
and radar sensors.
For instance, Cascini et al. (2009), investigated an area of 489 km2 in
south-central Italy. Unlike in the case of the Alpine region examined by
Colombo et al. (2006), this portion of the Apennine Mountains is
characterized by shallower slopes, fewer rock outcrops (clay-rich lithologies) and a greater proportion of cultivated land. Furthermore, only
three broad land cover/use classes with decreasing MTI applicability
potential were distinguished:
i) urbanized/industrial areas (63 CT/km2) and bare rocks;
ii) cultivated areas and bare soils (18 CT/km2);
iii) inland water and vegetated areas (6 CT/km2).
Note that these CT densities refer to low-resolution (80 80 m) SBAS
processing of ERS data (19952000) and, therefore, are much lower than
those derived from PSInSAR results of Colombo et al. (2006).
Furthermore, by combining the three land cover/use classes, characterized by different MTI applicability potential, with the sensor acquisition geometries (ascending and descending), topographic data and
landslide inventory information, Cascini et al. (2009) generated a priori
DInSAR landslide visibility maps. Accordingly, the study area was
divided into the following three broad classes:
i) visible;
ii) visible with difculty (low sensitivity to measure slope
displacements)
iii) not visible.
Low sensitivity in this case refers to the difculty to measure translational movements on moderately inclined slopes facing approximately north or south (Cascini et al., 2010). On such oriented slopes it is still
possible to measure displacements in the vertical direction, and therefore the movements characterizing rotational landslides.
The utility of the a priori landslide visibility maps was tested using
CT obtained via low-resolution SBAS processing of ERS descending
dataset. Note that here the term visibility represents a comprehensive
index of MTI suitability incorporating the radar visibility (i.e. lack of
shadowing and layover effects), as well as the qualications of different
measurement capability with reference to CT density.
Another interesting example of a predictive analysis of the likely CT
spatial distribution and density was presented by Notti et al. (2010),
who considered a 47 km2 catchment area in the Spanish Pyrenees. The
area studied, though relatively small, includes considerable amounts of
rocky outcrops forming steeper slopes (2535), as well as shale
(clay-rich) formations with moderate slopes (15), and as such,
perhaps shows intermediate characteristics with respect to the
previously described cases from the Alps and Apennines. As in the
above described studies the sensor geometry and slope topography
were considered to identify areas visible to radar through the so-called
R-index ranging from 0 (no visibility) to 1 (best visibility). To test the
results of radar visibility assessment, Notti et al. (2010) compared
their R-index based zonation of slopes to the actual CT densities obtained by processing 14 TSX images (acquired between May and October
2008 in the descending, STRIPMAP mode). A good correlation was
found in terms of increasing CT densities with increasing R-index.
Subsequently, following the approach of Colombo et al. (2006), on
the basis of empirical evidence, several land cover/use classes were
ranked according to the probability of locating CT (expressed through
LU-index). Then an overall MTI feasibility index (CR-index) was
obtained through the integration of the R-index based zonation with
LU-index. At the end 21% of the landslides in the study area resulted
suitable for MTI monitoring.
A revised version of the CR-index (with weighted average of R- and
LU indexes) has recently been proposed and its utility tested in the
Piedmont Alps, north-western Italy using RADARSAT and ERS data
(Notti et al., 2012b). In general, the comparisons of the actual CT distributions with the study area zonation based on CR-index values indicated
coherent results. However, the authors also acknowledged the difculties
in estimating LU-index for some terrains, problems with the quality and
resolution of land cover/use data and uncertainties in selecting a proper
weighted average to combine R- and LU-index.
3.1.3. Land cover/use, lithology and CT density

A priori predictions of CT distributions and densities are difcult,
because of the great variability of natural terrains and still limited
knowledge of their radar scattering characteristics. Thus such predictive
efforts rely on empirical evidence.
For example, Plank et al. (2012b, 2013) presented the following two
approaches for the estimation of CT density using freely available optical
data and land cover data:
i) NDVI-CT percentage method calculate the normalized difference
vegetation index (NDVI), whose values correlate well with CT distribution (expressed as percentage of image pixels with at least one
CT); the applicability of the method was illustrated by considering
three test sites (Cairo, Egypt; Budapest, Hungary; Aosta Valley,
Italy), and comparing the actual distributions of CT from PSInSAR
processing with the NDVI values calculated using Landsat 7 and
ASTER data; the method worked quite well for the Cairo site where
comparable resolution sensors were used (ENVISAT and Landsat
7), whereas the use of different resolution sensors (15 m ASTER
and 3 m TerraSAR-X) in the Budapest case was blamed for a less
sharp NDVI-CT percentage correlations; in the Aosta Valley case
(Alps) ASTER and RADARSAT-1 imagery was used, and considerable
scattering of the NDVI values and of CT percentages were related,
respectively, to seasonal effects (vegetation growth in summer)
and the presence of dense vegetation (forest);
ii) Land cover-CT method using the available land cover data
(e.g. GlobCover, Corine) CT density per km2 is calculated for each
land cover class and then the densities are normalized using the density value of the urban area assumed as a reference class; the normalization facilitates comparisons of CT datasets obtained using different
radar imagery and processing algorithms; however, a necessary prerequisite of this method is the knowledge of CT density in urban
area estimated considering comparable climatic/seasonal conditions
and via comparable radar sensor (Plank et al. (2012a,b).
However, it is apparent that high resolution optical data (or high
thematic resolution/quality of land cover information) would be needed
to improve the reliability of the above described methods of CT density
assessment, especially if the ultimate goal is to establish whether or not
the estimated CT availability might be sufcient for protable MTI
processing.
The importance of using high resolution thematic data when
predicting the suitability of different natural terrains for MTI applications
was demonstrated in an excellent work of Riddick et al. (2012), who analyzed the distributions of CT in the densely vegetated volcanic area of the
Oregon Cascades, USA. In particular, after processing of ERS imagery via
StaMPS method, with parameters' optimization aimed at selecting high
quality CT, their locations were examined to assess the characteristics of
the corresponding ground features. This was done using Google Earth,
geologic maps, 1 m resolution airborne Light Detection and Ranging
(LiDAR) data and vegetation maps. The following distinctive surface terrains representative of the study area were analyzed: recent Holocene
lava ows, reworked Pleistocene lava ows (boulder elds), water, permanent snowelds, unconsolidated volcanic material (pyroclastics), and
evergreen forest. Furthermore, Riddick et al. (2012) explored the relationships between CT density and bare earth exposure and slope-based surface roughness; to this purpose a grid of points with 31 m spacing was
generated across the LiDAR dataset and the number of CT and associated
surface characteristics were interpolated within each pixel.
The results revealed the highest concentrations of CT on young,
rough basaltic to andesitic lava ows (671 CT/km2), followed by those
on older, reworked lava ows occurring as boulder elds in the forests
(246 CT/km2). Due to decorrelation of the radar signal, few to none CT
were located in areas with unconsolidated pyroclastics, dense forest,
water and snow. Furthermore, CT were found preferentially located on
the lava ows with high (N 7080%) bare earth exposure values (N 90%
of the CT belonged to areas with no or very sparse vegetation cover). No
115
correlation of CT with vegetation type was found. Signicantly, CT were

almost absent in high elevation areas despite the high bare earth exposure values (lack of vegetation above tree line). This was linked to the
presence of nearly permanent snow cover. Similarly, the areas characterized by a combination of low surface roughness values (smooth surfaces)
and high bare earth exposure values included very few CT.
In summary, through their quantitative analysis Riddick et al. (2012)
demonstrated that CT were typically identied in areas with high bare
earth exposure values and moderate to high surface roughness values.
Therefore, once consistent relationships between the surface characteristics and CT density are established for a given type of terrain, these can
be used to predict the applicability of MTI in similar terrains before
acquiring and processing SAR images (Riddick et al., 2012).
3.1.4. Sensitivity to down-slope movements
The SAR systems record the LOS projection of a 3D slope deformation. They can fully resolve the movements that are parallel to LOS,
but have no sensitivity along the sensor orbit. Furthermore, they have
low sensitivity with respect to translational displacements along the
northsouth direction (deformation occurring along this direction
results in a very small LOS projection values).
The LOS projection of deformation (or average deformation rate, i.e.
velocity) can be derived from the scalar product of 3D displacement
data (or velocity) and the so-called sensitivity versor, whose components reect the impact of both horizontal (easting and northing) and
vertical deformation phenomena on the LOS measurement (Colesanti
et al., 2003a; Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006). Thus each component of
the sensitivity versor quanties the proportion of the deformation that
is detected along SAR sensor LOS. For example, ERS was capable to measure about 38%, 8% and 92% of deformation occurring, respectively,
along eastwest, northsouth and vertical directions. It follows that in
case of translational movements (parallel to slope surface) occurring
along the directions close to north or south, the actual displacement
rates can be largely underestimated. The same general limitation applies to translational movements on shallow slopes.
However, by considering slope inclination and aspect, LOS geometry,
and known (or inferred) direction of movement, the LOS velocities can
be easily converted to the so-called slope velocity (Colesanti and
Wasowski, 2006). The underlying (limiting) assumptions are the translational landslide mechanism and unidirectional movement (typically
along the maximum slope). Importantly, the application of a scaling factor to transform the LOS displacements into the translational deformation values also affects the precision of the measurement results
(Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006).
The issue of SAR sensitivity to down-slope movements and its
quantication has recently been discussed by Notti et al. (2012b) and
Plank et al. (2012a). By using the ERS- and RADARSAT-based displacement results from an area of the north-western Apennines, Italy, Notti
et al. (2012b) illustrated the relationships between the ascending/
descending acquisitions, slope topography and the percentage of
measurable movement rate (assuming slope parallel displacements).
Furthermore, the errors involved in transforming, pixel by pixel, LOS
velocity to slope velocities were discussed with reference to DEM quality and the assumption of ground surface parallel movements along
maximum slope direction. It is apparent that these limitations, possibly
aggravated due to pixel by pixel approach, can introduce an articial
variability in slope velocity maps.
Plank et al. (2012a) presented a GIS-supported procedure for the
quantication of the percentage of measurability of movement of a
landslide. Importantly, the proposed procedure enables calculating
separately the horizontal and vertical component of movement and
hence it is applicable to both translational and rotational slope failures.
Finally, an interesting example of sensitivity to down-slope movement evaluation was also presented by Barboux et al. (2012). By focusing on the potential use of TSX imagery (ascending and descending)
for slope instability monitoring in Alpine periglacial environment
116
(Switzerland) and considering 30 ground surveyed unstable landforms,

the authors were able to assess in detail the applicability of InSAR monitoring and estimate the maximum measurable displacement velocities.
3.1.5. Example of landslide visibility and sensitivity to down-slope
movement maps
A case study example from a high mountain area (Zhouqu, Southern
Gansu Province, China) is presented here to illustrate utility of maps of
radar landslide visibility and sensitivity to down-slope movement.

The area of interest amounts to about 40 km2 and is characterized by
steep slopes with elevations reaching 4000 m. Vegetation cover is limited and cropping out rocks comprise Silurian and Carboniferous slates
and phyllites, as well as metamorphosed limestones of Permian and
Devonian age (Dijkstra et al., 2012).
In this case only Google Earth (GE) imagery (SPOT5) and about 90 m
grid DEM derived from SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) data
Fig. 5. Map of landslide visibility and sensitivity to down-slope movement for a high-resolution CSK-based MTI application in the Southern Gansu Mountains, China. A) Landslide inventory
superimposed on the visibility and sensitivity to down-slope movement map; B) CT and landslide distributions superimposed on the visibility and sensitivity to down-slope movement
map (derived according to Eq. (3)). Legend: Layover = green); Shadowing = blue; Low sensitivity = white. CT velocity map derived by processing 3 m resolution descending CSK
imagery through SPINUA algorithm (GAP srl).
Background image from Google Earth.
were available to us. Firstly, a simple landslide inventory was created by

using 3D GE tools (Figure 5A). With medium scale imagery and eld
knowledge gained during three visits to the area it was possible to identify mainly large and more or less active landslides characterized by
fresh geomorphic features (e.g. visibly disturbed ground; eroded surfaces; stripped off vegetation). Secondly, radar visibility and sensitivity
to slope movements maps were generated by using slope inclination
and aspect information derived from the DEM and considering the
CSK acquisition geometries. Fig. 2 shows the acquisition geometry of
the descending CSK passes over Zhouqu in case of slopes facing east.
Areas affected by layover, shadowing and low sensitivity to downslope displacement were derived according to the geometric parameters dened in Fig. 2 and to the following relationships:
Layover : N & 30 b b150

Shadowing : N=2 & 210 bb330

Low sensibility : N=2 & 15 b b15 :
The optimal visibility map based on 40 incidence angle (descending

geometry) shows that limited portions of the study area are aficted by
shadowing and layover effects (Figure 5A). Furthermore, for only 3 out
of 25 mapped landslides the visibility is a signicant problem. The areas
with low sensitivity to slope movements are more widespread and they
impact (at least in part) about one third of the landslides.
The predictive quality of the visibility map is illustrated by overlying
the actual CT distribution obtained from MTI processing of about
20 high resolution (3 m) CSK images, which resulted in high
(~ 1000 CT/km2) overall density (Figure 5A, B). The outcomes show
very limited to nearly null CT coverage for about one third (8) of the
landslides. Field inspections and examination of GE imagery indicated
that the scarcity of CT on 4 landslides could reect loss of interferometric coherence related to mass movement activity, which involved soil
materials causing high degree of disruption of the ground surface; this
was particularly evident in case of two disruptive, ow-like landslides
in loess. In the remaining cases, the scarcity of CT can be attributed to
the lack of man-made structures, the local presence of vegetation
(mainly grassland and corn) and agricultural activity.
The Zhouqu example suggests that in mountainous areas with limited vegetation cover, simple landslide (slope) visibility maps can be sufcient for the a priori assessment of the suitability of a study area to MTI
based monitoring and for the selection of optimal sensor acquisition
geometry. This may hold particularly when using high resolution
radar data, which usually results in increased CT densities. In areas
with dense vegetation, more comprehensive MTI feasibility assessments based also on land cover/use information could be necessary. In
this context, the evaluations of sensitivity to down-slope movement
are relatively of lesser importance. Nevertheless, they are useful for
interpretation purposes, especially for local scale investigations.
3.2. Regional scale MTI investigations of landslides
3.2.1. General
Although engineering geologists typically focus on local or slope
scale landslide investigations, regional (and catchment) scale MTI studies are of interest, because they provide useful information on the
general applicability of CT-based interferometry for slope instability detection and landslide monitoring. Indeed, the applicability and quality of
MTI products is not linked to the spatial extent of a study area, but
depends on the availability of a sufcient number of CT (density) and
their distribution. Therefore, similar level of detail can be attained in
wide-area and site-specic MTI applications.
Several examples of MTI applied to (sub)regional scale studies of
landslides are available in literature (e.g., Farina et al., 2006; Meisina
et al., 2006, 2008; Guzzetti et al., 2009; Bianchini et al., 2012). All
these works regard the Italian territory, mainly the Apennine Mountains
and secondarily Alps. This can perhaps be related to the fact that
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landsliding is widespread in Italy and that the rst MTI techniques

(PSInSAR and SBAS) have been developed by the Italians.
3.2.2. Examples of regional scale ERS-based MTI studies of landslides
In the framework of the ESA's SLAM (Service for Landslide Monitoring) project, Farina et al. (2006) used PSInSAR results to investigate
the River Arno Basin (north-central Apennines), characterized by high
susceptibility to slope failures. The authors were able to present useful
statistics and draw signicant conclusions thanks to the large quantity
and quality of the data. These are summarized below:
study area N9000 km2
farmland and forest account, respectively, for 48 and 39% of land
cover
over 27,000 mapped landslide (areal frequency 11.2%, density
3.8/km2); predominantly rotational slides (74%)
16,000 buildings, 460 industrial districts and 350 km of roads
directly affected by landslides;
~ 700,000 CT from processing of 350 ERS1/2 descending images
(period: 19922002)
overall CT density 65/km2 (37 CT/km2 in the hilly and mountainous areas)
6.1% of the known landslides with MTI displacement information
223 new landslides detected from MTI data.
Based on their ndings, Farina et al. (2006) concluded that the necessary requirement for applicability of MTI was the presence of buildings and other man-made structures within an unstable area. While of
specic interest to ERS-based investigations, this conclusion, however,
may hold only for the regions similar to the Arno Basin, i.e. where
clay-rich ysch sequences represent the predominant lithology and
the landslide-prone farmland occupies large portion of the territory. In
some other environments, for example with more rock outcrops and
lesser agricultural activity, a better ERS (or similar C-band sensor) applicability conditions can be expected.
Therefore, it is of interest to compare the ndings of Farina et al.
(2006) with the results of ERS-based MTI investigation of the Piemonte
region (northern Italy) presented by Meisina et al. (2008). Note that in
both cases CT results were obtained from the same PSInSAR processing service providers (TRE s.r.l., Milan). The most relevant aspects and
ndings of the Meisina et al. (2008) work are summarized below:
study area ~25,000 km2 (including the Alps, Apennines and Langhe
Mountains)
steeper and less vegetated slopes in the Alps;
34,000 mapped failures (landslide density 1.4/km2);
~2,300,000 CT from processing of 614 ERS1/2 images (period: 1992
2001)
average CT density 92/km2 (overall study area)
20%, 12% and 8%, respectively of, Alpine, Apennine and Langhe
landslides with 1 CT
30% of ~300 landslides with ground monitoring data had 1 CT
in the Alps much higher CT density from talus than from massive
rock outcrops.
Note that the greater CT availability in case of the Alpine landslides
can be linked to the lower vegetation cover (higher mountain environment), the predominance of rock outcrops (as opposed to mainly clayrich ysch materials in the Apennines, and mudstones and sandstones
in the Langhe Mountains), and perhaps also to the relatively large dimensions of the Alpine slope failures. However, meaningful assessments of landslides including one or few CT can be impossible. Finally,
the overall ~ 40% higher CT density as compared to that reported by
Farina et al. (2006) may reect the likely lower vegetation density in
the Piemonte region located much further north with respect to the
Arno River Basin.
Another informative regional scale assessment of MTI performance
in landslide detection and monitoring in central Italy was presented
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by Guzzetti et al. (2009). In this case ERS imagery was processed using
SBAS technique (Berardino et al., 2002) and the landslide vs CT statistics
considered here refer to the centers of low resolution (80 80 m
ground pixel). The most relevant aspects and outcomes of the work
are summarized below:
study area ~6500 km2 (Umbria region Apennines: hills, mountains
with large open valleys);
93% vegetation cover (41% forest, 10% grassland, 42% cultivated);
~ 33,500 mapped failures (landslide density ~ 5.2/km2; ~ 10% of
mountainous/hilly areas);
49 and 24 descending and ascending ERS1/2 images (period: 1992
2000);
1.2% and 0.9% of landslides with 1 CT, respectively for descending
and ascending data;
0.2% (44) of landslides with 1 CT imposing the availability of data
from both orbits (suitable for retrieval of EW and vertical deformation components).
Guzzetti et al. (2009) noted the lower percentage of landslides containing at least one CT with respect to the results of Farina et al. (2006).
Considering the similarity of landslides types and geology in Umbria
and the Arno River Basin, the differences were ascribed to the somewhat higher percentages of forest and cultivated land in the former region and to specic processing approaches. Another limitation noted by
Guzzetti et al. (2009) was the difculty in establishing the exact location
of landslides suitable for MTI based investigation.
3.2.3. Applicability potential of MTI based on ERS and other C-band data
The outcomes of the above-discussed three different regional scale
studies appear largely comparable. They clearly point out that in settings comparable to those of central and northern Italy, on the average,
only a small percentage (10%) of landslides will benet from MTI information that can be derived from ERS data. This is further conrmed
by the results of another ERS based PSInSAR application regarding a
nearly 1100 km2 landslide-prone area in the north-western Apennines,
Lombardia region, Italy (Meisina et al., 2006). With over 90,000 CT
identied (density 82/km2) only 7% of the inventoried landslides had
one or more CT.
Although such low percentage gures indicate a low performance or
applicability of ERS based MTI, with the tens of thousands of landslides
mapped in many Italian regions, the implication is that potentially useful space-based information can always be obtained for a signicant
number of slope failures (on the order of thousands). And this information may often be the only one available considering the generally high
costs of in situ monitoring. Importantly, the percentage of urban
landslides suitable for MTI investigations will be considerably higher
because of the general availability of CT in urbanized areas.
Furthermore, it is clear that the MTI applicability statistics may
depend also on the predominant type of slope movements and their
state of activity. This seems to be the case of about 490 km2 area in
south-central Italy investigated by Cascini et al. (2010). Using ERS1/2
based SBAS results and focusing on rotational slides, earth ows and rotational slides-earth ows, they showed that 33% of the total number
(553) contained MTI information. This percentage is about ten times
higher with respect to the results of Guzzetti et al. (2009), who also
used low resolution SBAS approach and ERS data, but examined a
much larger area with a greater variety of landslide types (and greater
vegetation cover). Signicantly, most of the landslides studied by
Cascini et al. (2010) were dormant.
In general, extremely slow to very slow, deep creeping landslides
seem the most suitable for MTI investigations (e.g. Colesanti and
Wasowski, 2006; Colesanti et al., 2006; Delgado et al., 2011; Bovenga
et al., 2012a). Furthermore, in case of dormant landslides or those
with very low displacement rates and greater depths, the ground surface disturbance is null or limited and probability of preserving good
radar target coherence increases.
Literature provides also few examples of regional scale landslide investigations based on ENVISAT MTI (e.g. Righini et al., 2011; Bianchini
et al., 2012). They indicate a similar or even better performance with respect to ERS data. This is not surprising considering the nearly identical
characteristics of the two sensors and the incidence angle exibility of
ENVISAT (Table 1).
In particular, Bianchini et al. (2012) exploited ENVISAT-based MTI
results to detect landslides and characterize their activity in the central
Calabria (Southern Italy), a region prone to diffuse slope movements. In
this case radar imagery was processed using the method of Persistent
Scatterers Pairs (PSP) (Costantini et al., 2008). The salient aspects and
outcomes of the work are summarized below:
study area ~ 4470 km2 (90% hilly, mountainous terrain with
Hercynian crystalline basement rocks and overlying Mesozoic
Tertiary sedimentary units);
4102 mapped failures (landslide density ~ 0.9/km2; ~ 7% of total
area); predominantly slow roto-translational (53%) and deep-seated
(21%) slides;
landslide activity: 78.5% dormant, 21% active, 0.5% stabilized
108 ascending ENVISAT images (period: 20032009); LOS 23
~349,000 CT (78 CT/km2)
24% of landslides with sufcient number of CT (68% and 8%, respectively with no CT or insufcient number of CT)
64 new landslides detected (1.5% of the total of the pre-existing
inventory).
This case study from Southern Italy would suggest a signicantly
better coverage of landslides with ENVISAT (24%) with respect to ERS
(typically 10%). However, the statistics regarding MTI performance
based on ERS data refer to the regions from Central and Northern
Italy, which are generally characterized by higher precipitation (and periods with snow cover) and vegetation density.
In theory, even better applicability can be inferred for MTI based on
RADARSAT-1/2 data. This is related to the shorter revisit time of the
satellite (24 days), which implies lesser coherence loss problems. Indeed, the literature provides encouraging, albeit limited, examples of
MTI applications based on RADARSAT-1/2 imagery. Of interest is work
by Lu et al. (2012), who used RADARSAT-1 processed by PSInSAR to
investigate landslides in about 6300 km2 area covering about 70% of
the Arno River Basin, which was earlier studied through ERS-based
MTI by Farina et al. (2006). Using both ascending and descending
datasets (respectively 54 and 48 images), Lu et al. (2012) obtained displacement information for 3203 landslides (14.9%). This suggests moderate improvement assuming that number of CT could be doubled in
this case, and considering also that Farina et al. (2006) exploited a
signicantly larger number of descending ERS imagery (350).
Finally, the comparative analysis of the ndings of MTI landslide investigations based on ERS, ENVISAT and RADARSAT data provides useful
indications on the potential performance of future C-band sensors. In
particular, with reference to the technical parameters of the upcoming
Sentinel-1 mission, and specically to the shorter re-visit time and exible incidence angle geometry (Table 1), one can expect much better
practical utility of this sensor for landslide monitoring.
3.3. Catchment-wide and local scale (slope specic) MTI investigations
of landslides
While the literature indicates that regional scale landslide applications of MTI have so far been restricted to the Italian territory, this is
not the case of the catchment and especially larger scale studies. Nevertheless, it is apparent that at these scales the majority of published
examples of MTI-based landslide investigations regard European countries. Indeed, the MTI techniques have been rst developed in Europe,
where they also gained earlier acceptance by landslide scientists and
end users.
3.3.1. Example of catchment scale MTI investigation of landslides in the US

The work of Hilley et al. (2004) represents perhaps the rst example
of catchment scale MTI application to landslide study. Importantly, the
work shows not only how MTI can be exploited to detect landslides,
but also how to identify temporal variations in their movements. The
study was focused on the eastern San Francisco Bay area (California)
that is affected by seismic activity and prone to landsliding. PSInSAR
processing of 46 ERS1/2 images acquired between 1992 and 2001
resulted in over 18,000 CT, which were then used to analyze ground surface deformations. Several landslides were identied with LOS velocities
of 5 to 7 mm/yr, indicative of Vslope ranging from 27 to 38 mm/yr.
Furthermore, Hilley et al. (2004) used CT time series to investigate the
relationships between the slide movements and precipitation. They
demonstrated that landslide movements took place mainly during the
high rainfall season. In particular, an increase of LOS velocity up to
11 mm/yr was observed during the 19971998 El Nino event.
Overall, the results revealed rather complex dynamics of slow moving landslides characterized by non-linear motions with seasonal accelerations and decelerations. Remarkably, this was achieved with, on
average, 56 radar acquisitions per year. Following the work of Hilley
et al. (2004) there have been rather few other attempts of exploiting
MTI data to seek the relationships between the landslide movements
and causative/triggering factors such as precipitation (e.g. Guzzetti
et al., 2009; Notti et al., 2012a; Meisina et al., 2013). This may be in
part ascribed to the difculties in securing long-term consistent radar
acquisitions over different study areas.
Nevertheless, thanks to the signicantly higher frequency sampling
of CSK and TSX satellites we can now expect an increase in efforts
aimed at detailed temporal characterization of landslide motion. Such
efforts will be further facilitated by the long-term, consistent and high
frequency (12 to 6 days, Table 1) from the upcoming Sentinel-1
mission.
3.3.2. Examples of catchment scale MTI investigations of landslides in
Europe
An example of a large catchment MTI study is provided by Righini
et al. (2011), who investigated the Biferno River Basin in the Molise
Region, south-central Italy. Again, the salient features of the study area
and ndings of this work can be summarized as follows:
1320 km2 study area with predominant clay-rich sedimentary units
of Tertiary age
2998 landslides (density 2.3/km2; 210 km2 = 16% of the total area);
59% active, 38% dormant, 3% stabilized (inventory data from the
early 2000s)
SAR data: ERS1/290 ascending and 152 descending images;
ENVISAT 38 asc. and 28 desc.
overall 112,626 CT from PSInSAR processing, average density
85 CT/km 2 (170 CT/km 2 in urbanized areas); 54 CT/km 2 and
31 CT/km2, respectively from ERS and ENVISAT
163 pre-existing landslides (5.4% of the total number) included
CT; these landslides cover ~ 40 km2 = 20% of the total landslide
area
95 new landslides detected from MTI-derived information
(~ 10.3 km2 = 5% of the total landslide area)
70% of landslides have LOS velocity b 10 mm/yr.
The above ndings show once again that in the Apennine Mountains
MTI based on ERS and ENVISAT imagery provide information (CT) only
for a limited percentage of known landslides. Nevertheless, a signicant
number of new landslides were detected. The new as well as the preexisting landslides containing CT amounted to about 25% of the total
landslide area, in spite of the low overall number (258). This demonstrates that MTI provided information mainly for large landslides.
Notably, most of them were extremely slow.
Furthermore, Righini et al. (2011) used the LOS velocity of CT to
dene the state of activity of landslides, as well as its variation in time
119
with reference to the two temporally distinctive SAR datasets. Active

and inactive landslides were dened as those with CT velocities, respectively N 2 mm/yr and 2 mm/yr. The use of such a low LOS velocity
threshold seems somewhat questionable considering that slopes, especially those in clay-rich materials, can be often affected by similarly slow
deformations related to creep or heave phenomena. It is also apparent
that the reliability of landslide state of activity assessments based on
MTI results will be directly linked to the density and distribution of CT
within a landslide, and this information should be provided.
In this context, of interest is work of Cigna et al. (2013), who presented a similar approach for the state of activity assessments of landslides
with reference to surface deformation rates from MTI. The approach,
reserved for very slow landslides, was tested in a 14 km2 landslideprone area in Southern Italy. The work relied on an inventory of 26
landslides and three SAR datasets: ERS1/2 (19922000); RADARSAT-1
(20032010) and RADARSAT-2 (20092011).
In this case study a 5 mm/yr slope velocity (Vslope) threshold was
selected to distinguish between active and inactive landslides. Additional assumptions and constraints included:
presence of 4 CT within a landslide;
purely translational movement along maximum slope direction (for
conversions of LOS velocity to Vslope);
representative landslide velocity values, taken as average velocity of
all CT that fall within slide limits (annual rates averaged over the
data acquisition periods that varied from two to several years).
The MTI data were considered suitable for the state of activity
assessment of about 50% of the landslides. Cigna et al. (2013) also
discussed the limitations of their approach and in particular the difculties in choosing an appropriate velocity threshold. Indeed, a generally
applicable velocity threshold may not be proposed considering complexity of slope/landslide processes and deformation mechanisms, as
well as the current MTI limitations. It is apparent that very good local
knowledge of a study area and associated ground surface deformation
phenomena are necessary to guarantee utility and reliability of similar
assessments.
Another relevant example of MTI applications in catchment-scale
landslide study regards the Upper Tena River Valley in the Central Pyrenees (Spain). This area has been the focus of a series of related investigations in the last few years (e.g. Notti et al., 2010; Herrera et al., 2013
and references therein).
The salient characteristics of the Tena Valley site can be summarized
as follows:
47 km2 river valley area elongated in NWSE direction; elevation
from 1200 to 2500 m a.s.l.;
predominantly moderate slopes (1520);
sparsely urbanized, land cover dominated by grass and shrub (53%);
some pasture and forest
about 80% of the area characterized by the presence of shales and
slates (Devonian); limestones (Carboniferous), sandstones and conglomerates (Permian), and greywacke (Carboniferous) account for
the remaining part of the bedrock; thick colluvia typically on slopes
in clay-rich units;
103 landslides (2009 inventory data reported by Notti et al., 2010),
covering ~ 28% of the total area; density 2.2/km2; ~53% of the total
number of landslides (nearly 80% of the total landslide area) represented by large earth ows, earth and rock slides and complex
earth slide ows, which affect mainly slopes with shale/slate
bedrock; the remaining 47% are rock fall and rock avalanche
deposits (typically of smaller dimensions).
The SAR data and salient outcomes of MTI application by Notti et al.
(2010) are schematically presented below:
14 TSX Stripmap descending images (MayOctober 2008), incidence
angle = 45;
120
about 35,000 CT identied (~ 900 CT/km2) from the SPN (Stable

point Network) MTI processing (Duro et al., 2004);
about 53% of landslides with 1 CT;
4 new landslide detected;
about 21% of the pre-existing landslides suitable for MTI monitoring
by imposing the following requirements: number of CT and CT
density per landslide, respectively 3 and ~100/km2.
When confronted with the previously reported MTI studies of landslides based on C-band data, the results of Notti et al. (2010) indicate
signicant improvement (approximately by a factor of 10) in terms of
the obtained CT densities and the percent of landslides with MTI information. This is consistent with the generally better performance of high
resolution MTI indicated by other authors for different settings (e.g.
Bovenga et al., 2012a; Duro et al., 2012). It seems that thanks to its environmental setting characteristics (e.g. abundant rock outcrops and
rock debris, limited tree cover, moderate and favorably oriented slopes)
and the predominant type of landslides (large, very slowly deforming
ows/slides), the Tena Valley is particularly suitable for X-band MTI.
The recent work of Herrera et al. (2013) is perhaps the latest of a series of MTI studies focused on landslides in the Tena Valley. The authors
explore the benets of a multi-sensor application by exploiting L-, Cand X-band imagery. While the same SPN processing is used as in the
study of Notti et al. (2010), the MTI applicability is now tested against
an inventory including almost three times as many landslides (294).
These are reported to cover 35% of the study area, with earth ows in
sheared shales/slates accounting for more than 71% of the total area
affected by landslides.
The SAR datasets and MTI results can be summarized as follows:
43 ERS2 and ENVISAT descending images (20012007), 374 CT
identied (8/km2);
12 ALOS ascending images (20062010), 11,930 CT identied
(254/km2);
14 TSX descending images (MayOct. 2008), 32,706 CT identied
(680/km2);
By combining the CT information from the three bands and generating Vslope displacement maps (under the assumption of translational
movement mechanism), Herrera et al. (2013) were able to detect 59%
of earth ows, 41% earth slides and 63% of rock fall/rock avalanche
deposits (all together 57% of the inventoried landslides). The overall
number of the detected landslides dropped to 38% by introducing the
minimum numbers of CT necessary to characterize a landslide: 30
and 4 CT, respectively for X-band, and C- and L-band data. When considering each dataset separately, more landslides were detected with Lband (86 or 29% of the total inventory) than with X-band (55 or 19%)
data, even though the latter provided the highest densities per landslide. The C-band data led to the detection of only 12 (4%) landslides.
Furthermore, Herrera et al. (2013) assessed state of activity of the
inventoried landslides. This was done by calculating the average Vslope
of the landslides that contained sufcient number of CT (4 for L- and
C-band or 30 for X-band) and introducing statistically dened Vslope
stability thresholds for the three bands (respectively 21, 14
and 16 mm/yr for the L-, C- and X-band). Through this approach 79
landslides (27%) were dened as active with an average rate of CT
displacement greater than 14 mm/yr.
However, the statistics beyond the stability thresholds (dened for
68% of the CT population falling at the same Vslope distance from
zero) are not entirely convincing and the high Vslope gures could be
difcult to justify. With this and the involved simplifying assumptions
(purely translational movements for all landslides), the practical value
of such three band combined Vslope stability thresholds remains unclear. In general, the selection of a CT velocity threshold to distinguish
between active and inactive landslides should be case specic, depending on the lithological characteristics (mechanical properties) of the
failed material (e.g. soil versus rocks), failure mechanisms, sensor
measurement precision and the investigation objectives. Furthermore,

lower velocity thresholds can be appropriate when focusing on creeping landslides or potentially unstable slopes, considering that preevent or pre-failure deformations can be extremely slow, especially in
rock materials (cf. Dehls et al., 2012).
Nevertheless, the potential benets of using multi-sensor approach
appear evident. In particular, in the case of the Tena Valley, the L- and
X-band data provided complementary results, whereas, the contribution from C-band was nearly irrelevant; the latter can be related to the
environmental characteristics of the study area (especially abundant
grassshrub vegetation) and probably also to the temporal gaps in the
C-band data. Although the joint exploitation of different sensor datasets
can help reducing temporal gaps and improve spatial coverage (CT) of
the phenomenon of interest (landslides), such an approach implies signicant increase in imagery and processing costs. This has to be taken
into account when planning non-research oriented landslide investigations. In those cases a more effective approach could rely on the use of
coarser imagery MTI to secure wide-area coverage, to be integrated by
higher resolution MTI with focus on urbanized or greater value areas.
In the near future these approaches should be facilitated the global coverage and free medium resolution imagery guaranteed by background
satellite radar missions (e.g. Sentinel-1).
3.3.3. Example of catchment scale MTI investigation of landslides in
Gansu, China
The Zhouqu study area in the Southern Gansu has already been
briey introduced (Section 3.1.5) to illustrate the generation and utility
of landslide visibility maps. This case is of further interest because it i)
represents a (still) rare example of high resolution MTI applied to investigate landslides in an area outside of Europe, and ii) bears some similarities to the earlier described Tena Valley case from Spain.
It should be noted that the Zhouqu area was inspected by the rst
author before, during and after the radar data acquisition. These three
visits greatly facilitated the interpretation of the MTI results.
The main features of the Zhouqu study area (Figure 6A) are:
about 40 km2 mountain terrain within the Bailong River catchment;
steep slopes, high local relief with elevations ranging from about
1300 m (valley bottom) to 3000 m a.s.l.;
sparsely urbanized, common presence of agricultural terraces in the
loess cover materials on middle-lower elevation slopes; barren land
common on the high steep slopes (metamorphosed limestones and
phyllites outcrops); grass land on middle-upper slopes and limited
forest and shrub at the highest elevations;
bedrock geology in the valley mainly comprises slates and phyllites
(Silurian and Carboniferous), while at higher elevations metamorphosed limestones predominate (Permian and Devonian);
semi-arid to arid climate characterized by modest rainfall with an
annual average precipitation of 434 mm (Tang et al., 2011);
seismically active with large magnitude (M78) historical earthquakes (Dijkstra et al., 2012)
high susceptibility to slope failure with 25 medium to large size,
recent/active landslides (Figure 6A) mapped from Google Earth
(density 0.6/km2)
The SAR data and major outcomes of MTI processing (SPINUA
algorithm) can be summerized as follows:
22 CSK images (Stripmap mode, descending, = 40), period
November 2010February 2012
over 46,000 CT identied (density N1000/km2);
16 out of 25 (64%) of the landslides with sufcient CT information,
i.e. N 10 CT/landslide and suitably distributed to allow meaningful
interpretation (Figure 6B).
Furthermore, MTI results provided valuable information on the activity of four major, apparently slow landslides that involve intensely
sheared slates and phyllites. Their movements represent a persistent
121
Fig. 6. Zhouqu study area in the Southern Gansu Mountains (China): A) General view showing distribution of 25 landslides (in red) mapped using Google Earth optical imagery and 3D
tools. The town of Zhouqu (right of center) develops on the northern side of the Bailong River Valley. The 4 km long Suortou landslide represents the largest slope failure in the area;
B) Distribution and average velocities of radar targets (over 46,000 CT) superimposed on the GE image with 25 landslides. Velocity values are saturated 20 mm/yr and represent LOS
displacements. Dashed and continues line arrows indicate, respectively, radar azimuth and LOS. Red and blue dots indicate, respectively, CT movements away and toward the satellite
sensor. CT velocity map derived by processing 3 m resolution descending CSK imagery through SPINUA algorithm (GAP srl).
hazard to the local population and infrastructure (Figures 6, 7). Monitoring these long-lived landslides is important especially when, as in
the case of the Bailong catchment, they are known to undergo periods
of increased activity resulting in river damming and disastrous ooding.
The MTI results relevant to two of these major landslides are
presented in more detail in Fig. 7, which includes also time series of
selected radar targets. In both cases over 100 CT were available per landslide. The majority of the radar targets that fell within the slides' limits
showed considerable LOS displacement rates, with the maxima exceeding 60 mm/yr in the case of the larger movement (about 4 km long
Suortou landslide), and 140 mm/yr in the other case (Figure 7). Significantly, despite the very similar land cover/use and lithology, the
122
Fig. 7. A) Google Earth view of two major landslides located to the west of Zhouqu showing distribution and average velocities of radar targets. Velocity values are saturated 20 mm/yr
and represent LOS ground displacements; numbers 1 and 2 indicate CT whose time series are shown, respectively, in B and C; B) and C) show time series of CT with high displacement rates
from the Suortou (1) and another landslide (2) located further west. CT velocity map and time series derived by processing 3 m resolution descending CSK imagery through SPINUA
algorithm (GAP srl).
landslide with faster moving radar targets had more gaps in CT coverage. This may be related to greater ground surface disturbance at higher
movement rates. Furthermore, in areas with good CT coverage it was
also possible to detect and interpret local variations in the direction of
movement with reference to the CSK satellite LOS. These are well visible
in the middle-lower portions of both landslides (e.g. predominantly SEand SSE-ward movements diverging in the fan-shaped toe areas
towards S and SSW).
The presence of complex kinematic patterns in large landslides in intensely sheared materials is not surprising. The same can be expected
for many other and also smaller failures in soil, for which a coherent
block-like motion model may not be inappropriate. All this calls for
much caution when introducing simplifying assumptions for landslide
assessments based on MTI displacement results. For example, landslide
activity classications based on the average velocity of all CT falling
within the slide limits (assuming unidirectional movement), can easily
lead to erroneous results. Therefore, where appropriate, a selection of

CT is advisable in order to correctly characterize landslide state of
activity. In fact, in ground surface monitoring, measurement points are
carefully selected taking into account the inferred mechanism of a
landslide, as well as its local geomorphic and lithologic features.
Interestingly, for the Suortou landslide, the MTI results indicated a
very good agreement between the location of moving CT and the slide
limits mapped from Google Earth. In the other case, the CT information
revealed the presence of an additional, collateral movement to the east
of the landslide source, thereby signicantly improving the initial
mapping based on medium resolution Google Earth imagery (Figure 7).
As illustrated in the example above, the data integration from generally available medium resolution optical imagery and from MTI, could
be particularly attractive for regions with limited ground information.
Indeed, given the lack of monitoring data on large landslides at Zhouqu
and on other similar major failures that are common in the mountains of
Southern Gansu, the MTI-derived displacements offer unique information, which, following expert judgment, can be used for preliminary
wide-area assessments of hazards linked to landslide activity.
The relatively high percentage of the landslides covered by CT is consistent with the outcomes of the radar visibility assessment (Figure 5,
Section 3.1.5). The high mountain setting investigated here seems favorable for high resolution X-band MTI because of i) scarce vegetation;
ii) abundant rock exposure, and iii) relatively dry climate. In this respect
the Gansu study area resembles the Tena Valley, which is also characterized by very similar rock assemblages and comparably high proportion
of large, slow landslides.
In addition, very good performance of 3 m resolution CSK-based MTI
in the Alpine environment has been documented by Bovenga et al.
(2012a), who investigated slow deep-seated landslides in Switzerland
and Northern Italy. Similarly, Dehls et al. (2012) reported very good results from a MTI study of three unstable rock slopes in Norway based on
3 m resolution TSX (Stripmap) data. Nevertheless, it is likely that in
some other, more vegetated settings, and where predominant type
of slope failure is different (e.g. faster landslides), the application of
X-band MTI to landslide monitoring will be less successful.
3.4. Local scale (slope specic) MTI investigations of landslides
Scientic literature, including Engineering Geology journal, offers
numerous examples of MTI applied to local scale landslide investigations. Here we refer to our own case studies from Europe that rely
on ENVISAT and CSK data processed using SPINUA algorithm. The
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examples are selected to highlight some current issues in this eld

(e.g. MTI strengths and limitations, interpretation difculties). In most
cases the MTI applications are analyzed taking advantage of in situ
data available in the form of directly acquired information through the
authors' eld inspections, or indirect knowledge about the investigated
sites obtained from scientic/technical geological literature and personal communications.
Much attention is paid to the results obtained from the new generation X-band sensor CSK, whose high spatial and temporal resolutions
appear most suitable for slope/landslide specic applications. This
nding is consistent with the recently reported outcomes of similar
MTI applications based on X-band data from CSK and TSX, as well as
from high resolution C-band data from RADARSAT-2 (e.g. Bovenga
et al., 2012a; Dehls et al., 2012; Herrera et al., 2013).
3.4.1. Madesimo case study, Central Alps, Italy
This application example has already been briey described by
Wasowski et al. (2012), who offered a preliminary interpretation of
MTI results without having visited the study area. Here we expand
upon this initial assessment taking also into account the newly available
information about the unstable slope facing the town of Madesimo
(Apuani et al., 2012).
The municipality of Madesimo constitutes the northernmost portion
of the Lombardy Region, bordering with Switzerland. Madesimo, a well
known winter ski resort, is located at about 1550 m a.s.l. in a north
south trending valley (Figure 8). In the nearby area there are peaks
that exceed 3000 m elevation. As elsewhere in the Central Alps, the
Fig. 8. Distribution and average line of sight (LOS) velocity of radar targets (marked by color dots) in the Madesimo area; the town is visible in lower right. Mount Mater facing the town
and another unstable peak are located, respectively, right and left of center; velocity saturated at 10 mm/year for visualization purposes. CT velocity map derived by processing ENVISAT
descending imagery through SPINUA algorithm (GAP srl).
Background optical image is from Google Earth.
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presence of high local relief and intensely deformed and fractured

rocks make slopes susceptible to a variety of mass movements
(e.g. Crosta et al., 2006). These range from deep seated gravitational
slope deformations to very shallow failures including rock falls and
debris ows.
In the Madesimo case we relied on over 32 descending ENVISAT images covering about ve year period, from June 2005 to August 2010.
The MTI results are presented in Fig. 8, which also offers a Google
Earth-supported 3D visualization of the general geomorphologic context of the study area. The CT velocities reveal the presence of two slopes
characterized by movements. One of these is the west facing slope of
Mount Mater (over 3000 m elevation), which overlooks the town of
Madesimo. The instability is marked by the presence of two clusters of
PS showing similar velocity displacements, exceeding 20 mm/year
(Figure 9).
The two coherent deformation elds on the west facing Mount

Mater slope (Figure 8) have been interpreted by Wasowski et al.
(2012) as indicative of slow rock slide movements within a larger
deep-seated slope failure. Indeed, together with the MTI results, the
presence of a prominent scarp near the mount summit with associated
fresh debris, fracturing and apparent lateral discontinuities (Figures 8,
9) denotes overall slope instability. This is consistent with the work of
Apuani et al. (2012), who presented a geomorphologic interpretation
of the Mount Mater as a large scale slope deformation affecting the
pre-Permian paragneiss bedrock. The instability of Mount Mater is of
particular concern, because of the proximity to the town. However, so
far, the instability assessments were hampered by the lack of slope
movement monitoring data.
Clearly, the MTI-based detection and quantication of the velocity of
the displacements on the Mount Mater western slope is of much
Fig. 9. A) Distribution and average LOS velocity of radar targets (marked by color dots) in the upper part of the Mount Mater; velocity saturated at 10 mm/year for visualization purposes.
Numbers 1 and 2 refer to CT, whose times series are shown in B) and C). Note the scarp near the mount summit likely linked to deep-seated slope deformations and fresh debris indicative
of active mass wasting. B) and C) Two time series showing LOS displacement rates exceeding 20 mm/yr; temporal gaps in measurements refer to winter months with snow coverage. CT
velocity map derived by processing ENVISAT descending imagery through SPINUA algorithm (GAP srl).
importance for a preliminary slope hazard assessment. This information

can also be used to better focus future in situ investigations. Furthermore, given the high elevation and difcult access to the middleupper part of the slope, MTI could be exploited to provide regular remote monitoring of the movements.
The other slope affected by instability is located less than 2 km north
of the town of Madesimo (Figure 8). In this case, the LOS velocities of CT
are more variable (from few to 39 mm/yr), reecting the widespread
mass wasting affecting the middle-upper portion of the slope that again
faces west, i.e. the valley (Figure 8). The presence of an inhomogeneous
displacement eld is related in part to autonomous movement of talus locally present on the slope (Figure 10). In particular, the deformation rates
at the slope top (bedrock) are on the order of 1518 mm/yr, whereas CT
from talus (blocks) show velocities ranging from over 20 to 39 mm/yr. It
is also apparent that local variations in slope inclination and facing direction add further complexity to the CT displacement pattern.
The above example illustrates that unstable rock slopes in high
mountain environments can be characterized by signicant variability
in CT velocities. This can be expected especially for slopes locally covered by rock debris. In those cases moving CT can reect displacements
of i) unstable bedrock, ii) unstable bedrock and unstable overlying
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debris or simply iii) creep of talus overlying stable bedrock. This calls
for caution when inferring slope instability hazards from remotely
sensed ground surface displacements. Again, simple averaging of velocities of many different CT without distinguishing the origins of their
motion may lead to misleading results. If eld controls are not feasible,
a careful interpretation of very high resolution optical imagery can help
avoid erroneous assessments.
3.4.2. BindoCortenova case study, Central Italian Pre-Alps
This example again regards rock slope instability in Italy. The
exploited SAR dataset was the same as in the case of Madesimo (32
ENVISAT descending images from June 2005 till August 2010).
The interpretation of the MTI results was also in this case facilitated
by the high resolution optical data and 3D visualization tools available
from GE. We had no direct knowledge of the study area, but beneted
from the geological and geomorphologic descriptions and the detailed
analysis of the damaging landslide events that occurred in Bindo in
2002 (Crosta et al., 2006).
In particular, the area is characterized by the metamorphic basement
rocks of Variscan age with granitic intrusions. The sedimentary cover is
represented by the Permian age formation made of conglomerates and
Fig. 10. Distribution and average LOS velocities of radar targets (marked by color dots) in the upper part of the unstable slope located north of Madesimo; velocity saturated
at 10 mm/year for visualization purposes. White circles indicate CT from rock debris with the highest velocities: 39 mm/yr (marked A) and 2527 mm/yr (B). CT velocity
map derived by processing ENVISAT descending imagery through SPINUA algorithm (GAP srl).
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Fig. 11. (A) LOS velocity results from ENVISAT data (period 20052010) superimposed on a Google Earth view of a large, apparently relict deep-seated slope failure (in the center) in the
BindoCortenova area; velocity saturated at 10 mm/year for visualization purposes. Note a 500 m long and 300 m wide debris avalanche (left of center) that in 2002 destroyed the SE
part of the Bindo village, and few coeval debris ows along the left lateral portion of the main old failure. The presence of moving radar targets on the slope affected by the debris avalanche
suggests post-failure instability. Yellow mark indicates location of GPS measurement point whose monitoring results are shown in Fig. 12; B) Distribution and average LOS velocity of CT in
the middle-upper part of the slope affected by the 2002 Bindo debris avalanche. Close spatial association of moving and apparently stable CT may suggest lack of coherent deformation
pattern. Note presence of abundant rock debris, including some large blocks. Arrow indicates CT whose displacement time series is shown in Fig. 12. CT velocity map derived by processing
ENVISAT descending imagery through SPINUA algorithm (GAP srl).
coarse-grained sandstones. Morphology of the area has been shaped by

the PlioceneQuaternary age glaciations.
In particular, a number of rainfall-triggered landslides affected the
Bindo area in late 2002 (Crosta et al., 2006). These included one debris
avalanche that reactivated part of the toe of the old deep-seated slope failure (paleo-landslide), destroying part of the Bindo village (Figure 11).
In addition, few debris slides mobilized the lateral portions of the old
failed slope.
The MTI processing provided good CT coverage mainly for the

urban/peri-urban area of BindoCortenova. For the major part of the
slope of interest no CT were identied, because of the dense tree vegetation cover (Figure 11). The lack of MTI information upslope from the
Bindo debris avalanche head scarp represents an important limitation,
because this area was considered by Crosta et al. (2006) to be susceptible to future failures. Nevertheless, over 70 CT were obtained for the
area where vegetation has been stripped off by the 2002 debris avalanche (Figure 11). The absence of CT on the debris slide ows west of
the Bindo avalanche could be related to the limited rock outcrops and
different slope aspect.
Signicantly, the presence of moving CT in the middle-upper part of
the 2002 debris avalanche slope indicated some persisting post-failure
instability (Figure 11). However, the overall displacement pattern
is complex, with LOS velocities that range from ~ 2 mm/yr to over
20 mm/yr. Furthermore, there are neighboring CT (located within 10
m distance), who's velocities vary from ~ 10 mm/yr to less than
2 mm/yr (i.e. within the movement detection threshold). These results
do not afford straightforward interpretation. One can envision that the
lack of homogeneous displacement eld could in part reect complex
movements (e.g. variable direction sliding or rotation) and/or autonomous motions of different size and shape surface blocks (Figure 11B).
The apparently motionless CT could also indicate the sites where the
debris-free slip surface is cropping out (possibly stable, i.e. not reactivated part of the pre-existing slide). However, the resolution of the
historic GE images is insufcient to provide the necessary detail in this
case. Furthermore, smaller than ENVISAT pixel's ground imprint
(20 5 m) would be needed for detailed scale positioning of CT.
Nevertheless, in this case GNSS monitoring data covering about two
year period were available from a measurement point positioned
upslope from the head scarp of the 2002 Bindo debris avalanche
(Figure 11). To facilitate direct comparison with MTI results the GNSS
3D deformation measurements were rst projected along the radar
LOS and then converted into interferometric phase values. Fig. 11C
shows the phase time series of the GNSS point and of one CT located
within the Bindo debris avalanche. The GNSS phase trend shows a
clear acceleration which is not present in the CT time behavior.
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A possible explanation stems from the fact that the two measurements are distant about 200 m from each other and may reect local
differences in slope deformations. However, phase unwrapping errors
occurring due to high displacement rates cannot be excluded: the
phase trend derived from the CT phase values by adding 2 jumps
shows a good agreement with the GNSS measurements (Figure 12).
The Bindo case illustrates some difculties that can be encountered
while interpreting CT movement results:
i) CT data limited only to the 2002 debris avalanche that mobilized
portion of the toe of a much larger, old slope failure covered by
dense vegetation;
ii) Complex post-failure displacement pattern perhaps in part related
to independent motion of rock debris overlying stable or unstable
body of the pre-existing large slide, or to possible unwrapping
errors, or both;
iii) Very limited ground monitoring results, regarding a GPS monitored site spatially distant (about 200 m) from the nearest CT;
this confers much uncertainty to any attempt of data integration.
Ideally, in similar cases careful and timely (during radar data acquisition period) in situ inspections would be needed to provide necessary
constraints for more reliable data interpretation. Today, over 10 years
after the debris avalanche event, the site conditions are different and
re-vegetation hampers detailed scale retrospective assessments.
3.4.3. Saint Moritz case study, Swiss Alps
This case has already been examined by Bovenga et al. (2012a), who
conducted a comparative study of MTI performance based on ENVISAT
and high resolution CSK data. Here we focus on the complementarities
of the two datasets and on the difculties in interpreting CT displacement
results. The results discussed below refer to the following datasets: i) 28
images acquired between March 2009 and October 2010 by CSK in
Stripmap mode along ascending pass with mean incident angle 26.6;
and ii) 35 images acquired between April 2004 and June 2010 by
ENVISAT along ascending pass with mean incident angle 22.8.
With reference to the 2006 Report of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering of Swiss Federal Institute of
Fig. 12. Monitoring results of GNSS measurement point (red circles) and displacement time series of CT (blue squares) located, respectively, upslope from and within the Bindo debris
avalanche (see Fig. 11 location). Comparison of the data may suggest the presence of unwrapping errors due to improper phase ambiguity resolution: the phase trend (black crosses)
obtained by adding 2 jumps to the CT original phase values is in good agreement with the GNSS measurements.
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Fig. 13. A) MTI results, obtained by processing ENVISAT data acquired on ascending pass, superimposed on Google Earth view of the slopes overlooking the town of Saint Moritz. Velocity
values are saturated 10 mm/yr and represent ground displacement along the LOS. Note complex landslide on the SE facing slope above St. Moritz. The failure is composed of the Gianda
Laret rockfall (upper zone) and Brattas landslide (lower zone), whose foot movement is constrained by the via Maistra rock ridge. Black letter C and arrow indicate location of the site
shown in Fig. 15C. B) Close-up showing distribution and average LOS velocities of CT in the Gianda Laret rockfall area. Note lack of CT in the zone of most active movements. Complex
displacement pattern could be related to independent motion of rock debris overlying unstable bedrock, low radar sensitivity to movements in NS direction, as well as to possible
unwrapping errors.
Technology Zurich (D-BAUG, 2006), the unstable SE-facing slope

overlooking Saint Moritz can be divided into the Gianda Laret rock fall
(upper part), which extends from the detachment area at the altitude
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of 2400 m down to the slope break at an altitude of about 2100 m,

and the Brattas landslide (lower part) that develops down to the altitude of 1800 m over a horizontal distance of 800 m with an average
Fig. 14. LOS velocity map of the peri-urban part of the unstable slope area at Saint Moritz obtained by processing ENVISAT data acquired on ascending pass (A), and CSK SAR data acquired
on ascending pass (B). Numbers 1 and 2 indicate, respectively, the Brattas landslide (foot) and a small unstable slope area in the western periphery of the town. Black letters A and B with
arrows indicate location of the sites shown, respectively in Fig. 15A and B.
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Fig. 15. Examples of LOS displacement times series of the radar targets (pointed by arrows) from three sites of ground instability in the Saint Moritz area: foot of the Brattas landslide characterized, respectively, by down slope (A) and upward (B) displacements, and the unstable slope area to the west of the Gianda Laret rockfall (C). CT displacement maps refer to the CSK
dataset acquired on ascending pass ((A) and (B)), and to ENVISAT dataset acquired on ascending pass (C). Note that displacements of the CT in gures (A) and (B) are, respectively, away
from and toward the satellite sensor.
Background optical images are from Google Earth.
slope of 20 (Figure 13). The upper zone shows signs of instability clearly visible on Google Earth optical image from September 2010
(Figure 13). The Brattas landslide affects directly urban area. The slide
is few tens of meters thick and its 600 m wide foot is blocked by the
Via Maistra rock ridge (D-BAUG, 2006). It is apparent that the Gianda
Laret rock fall and the Brattas landslide belong to one large complex
slope failure.
CT displacement results from MTI processing of ENVISAT data conrmed the overall instability of the SE facing slope that overlooks
Saint Moritz, even though due to tree cover no information was obtained for the middle part of the slope (Figure 13). The available high resolution CSK images covered only the lower part of the slope, but their
processing provided nine times greater density of CT for the urbanized
foot of the Brattas landslide with respect to that derived from C-band
data (Bovenga et al., 2012a). This can be visually appreciated in
Fig. 14, which also illustrates the complex deformations in the foot
area of the Brattas landslide, with down slope and upward moving CT.
Examples of time series of two CT showing such deformations are
included in Fig. 15. Signicantly, the in situ evidence of active compression at the foot of the Brattas landslide has recently been reported by Puzrin et al. (2012), who proposed a geotechnical model of the
phenomenon.
The MTI also revealed the presence of a group of moving CT (average
LOS velocities ranging from a few to several mm/yr) in the via Laret
area, to the west of the town center (Figure 14). We have no direct information about this site, but its instability has recently been of concern
for the Saint Moritz Municipality (A. Puzrin, personal communication,
2012). Although conditions of instability are indicated by the results obtained from the CSK (ascending) and ENVISAT (ascending) radar data,
only the latter allow the actual recognition of the unstable area, which
appears to be over 100 m long and wide. Indeed, in our previous assessment of MTI results from CSK data, this slope instability has been ignored (Bovenga et al., 2012a). The instability shows up better through
the ENVISAT-based CT, which form a more homogeneous displacement
pattern (Figure 14). This may be related to the longer observation period of ENVISAT (from April 2004 to June 2010). It is possible that with
the much shorter temporal coverage (from March 2009 to October
2010), CSK-based MTI was not capable to highlight displacements of
some very slow CT. However, in the absence of ground data we cannot
also exclude the presence of faster movements in the earlier monitoring
period (before March 2009) covered only by ENVISAT data. This example also suggests that in urbanized settings MTI based on medium resolution C-band data can locally furnish even better information with
respect to MTI from X-band data that currently are generally characterized by short temporal coverage.
Signicantly, the MTI results derived from ENVISAT data revealed
the presence of slope instability also to the west of the Gianda Laret
rock fall site (Figure 13). Time series of CT from that area show presence
of apparently gradual displacements (Figure 15). Even though the LOS
velocities result to be low (generally within 10 mm/yr), the overall CT
displacement pattern is complex. This could again be related to independent motion of rock debris overlying unstable bedrock, low radar
sensitivity to movements in NS direction, as well as to possible
unwrapping errors.
In spite of the above interpretation uncertainties, we expect that CT
displacement information obtained for the Saint Moritz area can be of
much help for the positioning of some ground monitoring points in
the upper part and other zones of the unstable slope. This case study
also shows how the combined use of data from different sensors (here
ENVISAT and CSK imagery) can help securing complementary results.
3.5. Monitoring infrastructure stability in landslide-prone areas
We present two examples of MTI-based detection of road network
instability associated with slope movements. For comparative reasons
one case regards the application of medium resolution ENVISAT data
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and the other relies on high resolution (3 m) CSK data. The intention
is to show the advantages of MTI applications relying on higher resolution (and shorter re-visit time) acquisitions by new generation X-band
radar sensors.
The rst example is from a landslide-prone region in the Southern
Apennines, Italy. It illustrates the detection of local instabilities based
on 47 ENVISAT images acquired between November 2002 and January
2010. Fig. 16 shows that the majority of CT located along the road of interest is stable. However, two radar targets exhibit average LOS displacements of about 6 mm/yr. One of these coincides with the road
portion adjacent to a landslide active during late 20022003 period.
The site has been known to the rst author, who inspected it in early
2003 following the occurrence of a 100 m long landslide (Figure 16).
This local knowledge helped associate the moving CT with the specic
slope failure event.
However, in the absence of site-specic information, the use of information from isolated CT to infer infrastructure instability and its causes
may lead to erroneous assessment. The interpretation uncertainties can
be much reduced where higher density of CT is available, as illustrated
through the second example from the Calabria Region mountains in
Southern Italy.
In this case MTI processing of 53 CSK images acquired between April
2009 and April 2012 resulted in good CT coverage of the area of interest
which includes A3 Highway (Figure 17). In particular, thanks to the
presence of numerous CT it was possible to delimit in detail the unstable
portion of the highway corresponding to a viaduct. Furthermore, high
resolution optical imagery from Google Earth help associate the structural instability with the presence of about 200 m long slope failure
(Figure 17). Signicantly, thanks to the higher temporal sampling of
CSK, it was also possible to reveal the presence of non-linear deformations (Figure 17B, C).
The available literature data (e.g. Bovenga et al., 2012a and references therein) indicate that with respect to medium resolution MTI,
from few to over 10 times greater CT densities can now be obtained
with the higher resolution X-band radar data. As illustrated in the two
examples above, high resolution implies increased feasibility of sitespecic or even engineering scale assessments of infrastructure stability
in landslide-prone areas.
4. Limitations of MTI applications in landslide investigations and
user guidelines
As reported in this review, many successful MTI case studies can be
found in scientic literature concerned with landslides. The difculties
commonly encountered in MTI applications to landslide investigations,
though discussed in some works (e.g., Bovenga et al., 2006; Colesanti
and Wasowski, 2006; Delacourt et al., 2007; Wasowski et al., 2007b;
Notti et al., 2010), have received less attention.
However, landslides often occur in environmental settings that are
harsh for the MTI applications (e.g. vegetated slopes, steep and rough
topography). Furthermore, with the exception of urban and bare rock
slopes, elsewhere the density of radar targets suitable for interferometric measurements could be low and this implies difculties in MTI analysis, as well as introduces considerable uncertainties in the assessments
of ground motions. Also, as emphasized by Colesanti and Wasowski
(2006), the interpretation of the exact geological/geotechnical signicance of millimeter to centimeter (per year) displacements can be
very challenging, because i) very slow ground surface deformations
may arise from a wide variety of causes and, therefore, their presence
on slopes may not always reect shear movements or occurrence of
landslides, and ii) many CT correspond to man-made objects (e.g. buildings) and thus their structural state/behavior (and groundfoundation
interactions) should be taken into account.
From a practical point of view, it seems useful to go beyond the scientic discussions of MTI applicability and offer some specic recommendations and guidelines on how to mitigate the limitations of the
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Fig. 16. Distribution and LOS velocities of radar targets (ENVISAT ascending data) along roads crossing a landslide-prone area of the Southern Apennine Mountains. One of the two slowly
(6.5 mm/yr) moving CT coincides with a road portion adjacent to a 100 m long landslide, whose movement direction is indicated by black arrow.
technique and avoid erroneous interpretations. This has recently been

attempted by Wasowski et al. (2012), who, focusing on landslide investigations, provided a list of MTI technical and interpretation challenges
matched by user guidelines. Here we expand on this effort by providing
a more comprehensive summary list of the technical constraints and
data interpretation issues that limit the applicability of MTI in landslide
assessment (Tables 2, 3). Again, an attempt is made to match the
difculties with specic user guidelines and recommendations. This is
done building upon the experience gained during our direct involvement in many MTI case studies, as well as upon the review of numerous
MTI application examples described in literature. Furthermore, several
of the recommendations presented here incorporate the ideas and suggestions that surfaced during the discussions at the FRINGE conferences
held in 2007, 2009 and 2011, as well as at the recent International
Forum on Satellite EO for Geohazard Risk Management (Bally, 2012);
all these meetings were organized by ESA.
Finally, although some of the offered recommendations could perhaps appear obvious, they are included here for the benet of potential
users with limited knowledge of MTI applied in slope instability investigations. For relevant references the readers are directed to preceding
Sections 2 and 3.
5. Summary discussion and future research priorities

With the wide-area coverage and high resolution of the new generation radar sensors, MTI offers both regional and detailed local scale
ground surface deformation monitoring capability. But are the potential
users prepared to take full advantage of this and, in particular of the
higher resolution and precision data? Other relevant question is how
to program MTI investigation in order to obtain the best results.
Given the recent opportunity of multi-sensor and multi-band investigative approaches, it is apparent that to be most effective MTI will have
to be tailored to the specic region/site conditions, landslide types, depending on the primary objectives of the investigation. For example,
in case of critical facilities at risk such as dams or bridges, of urban landslides or potentially unstable slopes in urban/peri-urban areas, as well
as in case of slopes traversed by lifelines and important engineering
structures, the cost of acquiring and processing high resolution radar
data can easily be justied. Conversely, in wide-area regional investigations, the use of medium resolution imagery will be more appropriate
and the most cost-effective.
Apart from the satellite data availability, the success of any MTI application in landslide investigation will depend on the two following
key factors:
suitability of the area of interest in terms of sufcient coverage by
radar targets (CT);
adequate knowledge of the limitations involved and the user ability
to correctly interpret MTI results and to extract useful information
for landslide assessment.
In particular, in local scale assessments typical of engineering geology practice, MTI results will be critically constrained by the availability
of a sufcient density of CT and their suitable distribution within and
in the neighborhood of the features to be investigated or monitored,
i.e. potentially unstable slopes and landslides. Depending on the objectives of the investigation, feasibility study can be recommended, especially when contemplating MTI applications in harsh environments
(e.g. dense vegetation), particularly when the focus is on obtaining
site-specic information.
The MTI feasibility study can be conducted by rstly constructing
simple radar visibility maps with reference to sensor geometry and
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Fig. 17. A) Distribution and LOS velocity of CT showing instability of a viaduct (A3 Highway) crossing a landslide area in Calabria, Southern Italy; B) and C) Time series of two CT showing
the presence of non-linear deformations. CT velocity map and time series derived by processing 3 m resolution ascending CSK imagery through SPINUA algorithm (GAP srl).
land topography. By considering different LOS geometries, the most

suitable SAR acquisitions can be selected; the available experience
from MTI case studies of mountainous settings indicates that, in general,
with higher incidence angles (3040) the layover and foreshortening
problems are reduced. Furthermore, when affordable, the use of both
ascending and descending acquisitions is recommended as this can mitigate the shadowing and layover effects. Secondly, based on a consistent
number of MTI case studies conducted in different environmental settings, CT availability can be anticipated by exploiting land cover/use
information. However, due to the great variability/heterogeneity of
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Table 2
Technical issues in satellite MTI applications to landslide investigations and guidelines for users.
Technical issues
User guidelines
Lack of natural, coherent radar targets (CT) or low spatial density (b5 CT/km2) in areas
characterized by scarce degree of urbanization, limited rock outcrops/bare ground,
dense vegetation cover, land use changes (e.g. seasonal crop agriculture, ongoing
engineering constructions) and steep and adversely oriented slopes with respect to
satellite Line of Sight (LOS) geometry
Use both ascending and descending radar datasets; select data from other sensors with
suitable radar LOS geometry (e.g. L-band works better in vegetated areas; greater CT
density from data acquired by new generation high resolution satellites CSK, TSX,
RADARSAT-2); consider different MTI processing options/algorithms (e.g. lower
coherence threshold compromise), combined Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI)
and small baseline approaches; use articial reectors: Corner Reectors (CR) or Compact
Active Transponders (CAT)
Exact spatial distribution of CT cannot be predicted without acquiring and processing

many radar images (usually N15)
Can anticipate likely distribution of areas with good, limited, very poor CT coverage by
taking into account slope geometry and radar LOS geometry (to generate sensor visibility
maps), and land cover/use
CT positioning errors, usually within radar image pixel size (e.g. 20 m for medium
resolution sensors), can represent a serious limitation in site-specic or local scale
engineering investigations
Conduct in situ inspections and use highest resolution optical imagery (also Google Earth)
or detailed maps to associate CT with actual objects on the ground; with high resolution
sensors positioning errors between 1 and 3 m
Can detect and monitor only very slow, coherent landslides with a limited range of
measurable ground displacement velocities (usually up to several cm/yr)
With shorter satellite revisit time (CSK constellation, TSX), the range of detectable
displacement velocities can be increased up to several cm/month (see Table 1)
MTI usually unable to detect strong non-linear deformation signals and high velocity
displacements (e.g. exceeding few tens of cm/yr)
If available, non-linear deformation model based on ground data can be used to support
MTI analysis; higher temporal sampling (days) by new generation satellites should help
Signicant differences between average displacement rates from MTI and landslide
movement rates from ground monitoring (e.g. with CT detect only fraction of the
horizontal component of ground motion); almost impossible to retrieve slope
movements in the radar satellite azimuth direction
Account for variable LOS sensitivity of current radar systems to measure displacements
(for incidence angles between 20 and 50, obtain 613%, 3475% and 9464%,
respectively, of the north, east and vertical components of motion); can use
speckle-tracking method to retrieve the deformation in the azimuth direction, but
impractical for small deformation elds. MTI and ground data tied to different reference
systems and hence cannot be directly compared; GNSS 3D motion data very helpful
MTI displacement results are relative in time and space; choice of suitable reference point Advice MTI experts on the selection of reference points; use detailed in situ observations and,
if available, ground monitoring data (e.g. GNSS) to verify the stability of reference point; if
often difcult; stability of reference point uncertain; more than one reference point
needed, change reference point; avoid structures subject to signicant thermal effects (e.g.
needed for large areas (or in tectonically complex, active regions)
metal roofs), settings with high groundwater level variations, with clay-rich materials (volumetric changes) and compressible sediments; rock sites generally most suitable
Need time (usually several months or more) to build up new radar imagery data stack
required for MTI processing; precludes rapid response in case of emergency situations
With shorter revisit time of new (e.g. CSK, TSX) and planned satellites the acquisition time
can be reduced to few months (see Table 1); MTI useful in post-failure phase that may
require long-term monitoring
Complex issues concerning quality, reliability and validation of MTI products (average
displacement velocity maps and time series); different measurement precision
estimates in literature (from several to a few mm/yr for a single measure, to 12 mm/yr
or better for average annual rates); limited appreciation of underlying assumptions and
a priori information, uncertainties and errors involved in different types of MTI analysis
Quality assessment difcult and often site-, data- and method-specic; a priori
assumptions (e.g. displacement model) and case-specic MTI measurement precision
(e.g. in terms of Standard Deviation with respect to model) should be clearly stated; to
mitigate noisy results set signicant velocity thresholds consistent with measurement
precision (e.g. 12 mm/yr); lower threshold for X-band (1 mm/yr)
natural terrains and still limited knowledge of ground surface radar

scattering characteristics, empirically driven quantications of MTI
applicability relying on the correlations between CT density and land
cover appear aficted by a considerable degree of uncertainty. The
main problems are the following:
i) quality and resolutions of land cover/use information
ii) generalizations and errors in land cover classications
iii) uncertainties involved in extrapolating the CT density-land use
relationship from one study area to a new area with apparently
similar surface characteristics.
In particular, at local scale considerable difculties can be expected
for highly heterogeneous land cover/use (mixed classes). Clearly, estimates regarding the applicability of high resolution MTI should rely on
the most detailed land cover/use information available.
These problems can be in part overcome by using land cover/use information derived from high resolution imagery and avoiding broad
terrain classications (mixed land cover). In this context, of special
interest is the work of Riddick et al. (2012), who used 1 m resolution
LiDAR data and demonstrated a good correlation between CT density
and the two following ground surface characteristics: bare earth exposure (inverse of vegetation) and slope-based surface roughness.
In the absence of detailed information only qualitative zonations
into areas more or less suitable for MTI seem warranted. In particular,
at local or slope scales large variability in CT densities can be expected
depending on the site-specic variations of land cover/use and topography (local changes in slope aspect and inclination). In this case, detailed
DEM and land cover/use information is necessary to provide reliable a
priori feasibility assessment. For local scale investigations one may
also consider the use of high resolution radar sensors which can offer
from 3 to over 10 times greater densities of CT with respect to medium
resolution MTI (cf. Bovenga et al., 2012a).
Furthermore, the highly variable sensitivity of SAR systems to downslope displacements can represent a considerable limitation in landslide
investigations. However, under certain conditions (e.g. predominantly
translational movement mechanism), the LOS displacement (or velocity) values can be converted to slope velocities, thereby facilitating interpretation of MTI surface deformation monitoring results.
Ultimately, however, the extent to which MTI can be protably used
in landslide investigation will depend on the users' background knowledge of the technique (and of slope processes), and on the interpretation capability of the CT displacement results. The idea beyond the
exploitation of MTI-derived ground surface displacement data is conceptually very simple, in that moving and non-moving CT denote, respectively, conditions of instability or stability. However, we argue
that LOS displacement data must be carefully interpreted using expert
judgment before they can be condently exploited as an index of landslide state of activity and slope instability. This will be especially important in case of extremely slow surface deformations that can have
different origins.
135
Table 3
Interpretation issues in satellite MTI applications to landslide investigations and guidelines for users.
Interpretation issues
User guidelines
Over-interpreting 1D MTI ground surface deformation results (i.e. projection of 3D

displacement) along sensor-target LOS as representative of 23D deformations
reecting landslide motion
If possible, use both ascending and descending data to reconstruct 3D deformation eld or
combine MTI results with ground data (e.g. GNSS, borehole inclinometers); for translational slides can use MTI displacement values resulting from projection along maximum
slope direction
Over-relying on measurements from single or few spatially isolated coherent radar

targets (CT)
Field checks necessary; use independent measurement data; examine site/slope history
(e.g. recent changes involving construction, local failures); with densities b5 CT/km2
(minimum threshold for successful processing), MTI product quality questionable; results
quality spatially variable (the higher CT density the better quality)
Over-simplifying the signicance of MTI displacement results by ignoring the exact

nature/state of radar targets and local geological setting; e.g. motion of natural CT
reecting slope/landslide movements versus autonomous motion of articial targets
(e.g. buildings) reecting their structural instability or ground settlements under
loading or both; extrapolating rock debris motion to slope bedrock instability
Use detailed geological data and in situ observations to associate CT to actual targets in the
eld; detailed scale topographic maps along with CT height information help differentiate
between radar signals from buildings and ground surface; distinguish between CT on rock
and soil slopes, with the latter being often subjected to seasonal creep and localized
deformations under loading; distinguish between CT from rock debris and bedrock
Attaching much signicance to extremely slow (from mm to cm/year) slope surface

deformations derived from MTI or misinterpreting them as caused only by landslide
motion; difcult to set a single, generally applicable value for minimum CT velocity
threshold to distinguish stable and unstable slopes (or active and inactive landslides)
Consider different natural processes and anthropogenic activity as potential causes of

deformation signal; acquire site-specic ground data; examine recent slope history
(e.g. land-use change); do cross-comparisons using independent datasets from the same
sensor (ascending and descending) or from different sensors; local area minimum
velocity thresholds more appropriate, being often case dependent (slope setting, landslide
type, spatially variable MTI data quality)
Over-looking complex spatial patterns in MTI-based ground surface deformation maps

(e.g. presence of spatially adjacent moving and non-moving CT on a landslide or slope);
assuming presence of unidirectional movements and rigid-block displacement mode for
landslides; averaging velocities of all CT falling within slide limits and taking it as
representative of landslide displacement rate
Lack of homogeneous spatial pattern (or CT clusters with similar velocities) can be
indicative of local deformations (e.g. settlements) or autonomous CT motions (e.g. rock debris
or unstable man-made structures), can result from non-unidirectional movements or reect
local variations in slope inclination/aspect or different deformation mechanisms (compression, extension) within a landslide; use maximum velocity of a consistent cluster of CT
Focusing mainly on warm (or cold) color moving CT (instability) and over-looking
non-moving CT, which offer valuable indications of stability conditions
Exploit jointly non-moving and moving CT to provide a general distinction between stable
and unstable ground and then focus on specic slope instabilities or landslides
Using surface displacement information from MTI for maping and assessing spatial
landslide hazard (susceptibility), updating landslide inventories (e.g. identifying new
landslides, revising boundaries of known landslides)
Although very useful in regional and local scale hazard assessments, MTI provides spatially
incomplete information (good CT density/coverage for a portion of slopes/landslides of interest); improved CT coverage with high resolution sensors and via multi-sensor approach;
pay attention to soil creep phenomena and minor ground deformations often present in
slope areas adjacent to active or recently active landslides (unloading/loading effects)
Capturing signals of potential slope failure (or landslide reactivation) from MTI time series
of ground deformations and exploiting it for landslide hazard forecasting and early
warning purposes; in theory MTI has good potential, but deformations preceding failure
could be very localized, extremely small and strongly non-linear, and hence difcult to
detect and measure reliably
Examples of pre-failure strain detection via MTI are lacking and records of very slow CT
motions seem to preferentially capture creep of deep slides and post-failure ground
instability (settlements, volumetric changes); easier to capture seasonal accelerations of
large landslides; distinguish deformations of rock and soil materials (and brittle vs
non-brittle behavior); shorter revisit time (better temporal sampling) and high resolution
(higher CT density) of new generation radars should help; X-band data seem best suited,
because of higher measurement precision
For example, large landslides in clay-rich or intensely sheared weak

rock materials are often characterized by complex kinematic patterns
(e.g. differential, non-unidirectional movements between distinctive
slide units). The same can be expected also for many other smaller failures in soil, for which a coherent block-like motion model may not be
inappropriate. All this calls for much caution when introducing (over)
simplifying assumptions for landslide assessments based on MTI displacement results. For instance, landslide activity classications based
on the global average velocity of all CT falling within the slide limits (assuming unidirectional movement), can easily lead to erroneous results.
Therefore, some selection of CT is advisable in order to correctly characterize landslide activity.
Furthermore, the interpretation of the exact signicance of low LOS
velocity surface displacements is not simple because slow deformations
on slopes may arise from a wide variety of causes (e.g. Gostelow and
Wasowski, 2004; Colesanti and Wasowski, 2006; Wasowski et al.,
2007b). Surface strains might result from a variety of factors including
subsurface changes to ambient stresses, geomorphologic processes,
civil engineering works, mining, uid and gas extraction or seismic activity. Nevertheless, landslide case records indicate that the most significant impacts are often those related to climatic variations and their
control on hydrogeology, groundwater pressures and effective strength.
The magnitudes and timing of deformations arising from such changes
will depend on the geotechnical characteristics of slope materials,

which can range from engineering rocks to soils.
Considering rock slopes, their temporal surface deformations (e.g. in
relation to sudden and high water level uctuations and thus effective
stress changes after intense precipitation) are poorly known. Literature
provides more information as regards the behavior of porous engineering soil materials on slopes. It is known that secondary structures such
as ssures and pipes can inuence hydrogeological response and
deformation in some materials, especially in residual soils. In hilly,
mountainous areas seasonal/annual uctuations of shallow unconned
groundwater levels can perhaps be expected to range from 0.5 to few m,
with average depths. As a result of their lower stiffness and permeability, small delayed seasonal consolidation and or swelling volumetric
strains occur within soils. Resultant displacements over time might be
found in a down slope direction, but such deformations might not necessarily always reect shear movements or movements leading to shear
failure. For instance, using slope indicators Eigenbrod (1993) measured
annual rates of surface movement of up to 50 mm per year on a 7
natural slope cut in soft per-glacial silty clays in Canada and found
them decreased to zero at 2 m depth. Laboratory investigation conrmed that the movements described as creep were chiey due to
seasonal pore water pressure changes. A shear surface was not found
and stability analyses indicated that slope was stable.
136
Similarly, Ng et al. (2003) described a well instrumented 11 m

high 22 cut-slope in medium plasticity swelling clay in China. There,
down slope surface displacements of 12 mm were recorded after single
articial rainfall events, decreasing to zero at about 6 m. Vertical swelling of the bare cut slope surface of up to 30 mm took place at the same
time.
It is recognized, with reference to both rock and soils, that accelerating strain rates occur prior to shear failure (e.g. Cruden and Varnes,
1996). For instance, Leroueil (2001) reported laboratory and eld evidence that as a slope approached failure, the down slope deformation
or strain rate increased. Such strains are not registered routinely, especially in regional scale investigations, because of the high cost involved
in eld instrumentation and in situ monitoring. Despite this limitation
it can be argued that the detection of any form of long-term wide-area
surface strain represents a useful contribution to slope stability, or
ground instability studies in general. However, the parameter and geological boundary uncertainties which control small ground surface deformation changes need to be investigated and better understood
before they can be condently used in landslide activity assessments
and for early warning purposes. It seems that the occurrence of small
deformation phenomena, unrelated to shear strains on active landslides
(e.g. ground settlements linked to the presence of compressible materials, seasonal or longer-term volumetric changes of geological materials), will be more likely in engineering soils than in rock environments.
Finally, the above discussed challenges of MTI applied to landslide
investigations lead us to highlight new emerging opportunities linked
to the improving resolutions of SAR data, as well as to suggest recommendations for future applied research priorities in this eld. These
include the following areas:
the new MTI algorithms dealing with both point-wise and distributed scatterers need to be properly applied to investigate landslide
phenomena by using different bands and resolutions;
the use of articial reectors (AR), which are now being increasingly
experimented where natural CT are lacking, make it possible to set
up a network of AR according to geodetic requirements: further investigations are required concerning the design of AR suitable for
different SAR sensors, the optimization of AR network, the development of ad hoc processing schemes which merge AR DInSAR
processing within MTI processing;
the exploration of upcoming Sentinel-1 C-band SAR data at 6/12 days
and medium resolution will imply improved time coherence with respect to previous C-band missions, leading to better (and wide-area)
coverage: ad hoc processing schemes need to be developed to this
purpose;
background missions like Sentinel-1 are necessary for long-term, systematic mapping of unstable or potentially unstable slopes and regional scale assessment of landslide processes; the initial wide-area
(reconnaissance) approaches can be suitably integrated with high resolution MTI to provide most valuable information for the spatial and
temporal analyses of slope deformation and a sound basis for derived
products ranging from regional hazard identication to individual
landslide monitoring;
thanks to the improving temporal and spatial resolutions of new generation radar sensors (e.g. CSK, TSX), and therefore better monitoring capabilities, signicant breakthroughs are expected in
detailed slope instability process characterization and modeling
(e.g. kinematic and geotechnical numerical models), as well as in
our understanding of spatial and temporal patterns of landslide
movement/state of activity and their relationships to causative or
triggering factors (e.g. precipitation, seismic loading);
The capability to provide, at regular intervals, long-term ground surface deformation trends offers an unprecedented opportunity for
early detection and warning of potential slope instability hazards,
but further research is needed with focus on the integration of
data from MTI and ground-based geotechnical monitoring.
Acknowledgments
The CSK imagery for the Zhouqu site, China was provided by the
Italian Spatial Agency (ASI) within the COSMO-SkyMed AO Project ID
1820. ENVISAT and CSK data for St. Moritz (Switzerland), Madesimo,
Bindo and Assisi (Italy) were provided respectively by the European
Space Agency (ESA) and ASI in the framework of the MORFEO project
funded by ASI (Contract no. I/045/07/0). CSK imagery for the test site in
Calabria Region (Italy) provided by ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) in
the framework of the project Landslide Monitoring and Mapping
System CAR-SLIDE (PON 01 00536). ENVISAT data for Volturino site
provided by ESA under CAT-1 project ID 2653 in the framework of Puglia
Region project FRANE PUGLIA Rilevamento di deformazioni al suolo
con tecniche satellitari avanzate. We thank Raffaele Nutricato and
Davide Oscar Nitti of GAP srl for providing MTI processing through
SPINUA algorithm. Comments by two anonymous reviewers and suggestions by the journal's Editor Hsein Juang helped us improve this work. We
also thank Qu Shannon (ELS-BEI) for soliciting this review article.
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Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Investigating landslides and unstable slopes with satellite Multi

National Research Council, CNR-IRPI, Bari, Italy

Corresponding author: Tel./fax: +39 080 5929583.

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

High density of radar targets (from tens to hundreds per km 2 in

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

and challenges are outlined and recommendations for applied research

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

(see Table 1), DInSAR displacement measurements can potentially

refractivity index changes due to the presence of the atmosphere (dRatm);

Note: Future missions shown in gray.

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

(e.g. Berardino et al., 2003), slowly-decorrelating ltered phase (SDFP)

both temporal and volume decorrelation than PS. According to these

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

2.3.2. CT density and articial reectors (AR)

There is limited information in the literature on the CT densities

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

to distinguish between CT corresponding to roofs or walls of a building.

2.3.5. Deformation model

2.3.6. Aliasing problem and maximum detectable velocity

Since aliasing applies to phase difference both in space (between CT

2.3.7. Reference point selection

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

2.3.10. SAR missions and data characteristics

2.3.11. Performance of L/C/X band MTI in terms of movement monitoring

reliable estimates of the displacement rates are possible i) using fewer

2.3.12. High resolution X-band data and new application possibilities

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

building interferometric stacks for MTI techniques up to eight times

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

monitoring data. Firstly, two displacement maps, derived by processing

3. MTI applications in landslide investigations

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

uniform spatial distribution are desirable, because it implies good

suitability, as well as limitations related to layover, shadowing

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

reduced. Note that foreshorting impacts mainly on the percentage of

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

3.1.3. Land cover/use, lithology and CT density

correlation of CT with vegetation type was found. Signicantly, CT were

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

(Switzerland) and considering 30 ground surveyed unstable landforms,

radar landslide visibility and sensitivity to down-slope movement.

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

were available to us. Firstly, a simple landslide inventory was created by

Layover : N & 30 b b150

The optimal visibility map based on 40 incidence angle (descending

landsliding is widespread in Italy and that the rst MTI techniques

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

3.3.1. Example of catchment scale MTI investigation of landslides in the US

with reference to the two temporally distinctive SAR datasets. Active

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

about 35,000 CT identied (~ 900 CT/km2) from the SPN (Stable

measurement precision and the investigation objectives. Furthermore,

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

lead to erroneous results. Therefore, where appropriate, a selection of

J. Wasowski, F. Bovenga / Engineering Geology 174 (2014) 103138

examples are selected to highlight some current issues in this eld