Determination of the displacement rate of the Masouleh landslide for management of landslide risk by Radar Interferometry

One of the most common natural phenomena occurring in mountainous regions of the world is landslide which causes critical damages and is considered as a natural disaster.  Iran is a country which annually suffers from this disaster and its consequent damage of about 500 billion Rial. Over the last 15 years, an increasing number of researches have aimed to demonstrate the applicability of the images captured by the space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors in sensors. InSAR (SAR interferometry) is currently one of the most exploited techniques for the assessment of ground displacements, and is becoming a consolidated tool for Civil Protection institutions addressing landslide risk. Analyzing satellite SAR data plays a major role in investigating landslide related events at different stages, including detection, mapping, monitoring, characterization and prediction. In this regard, Masouleh region is highly important in terms of geology, geomorphology, and high potential for landslide occurrence. Therefore, in this study in order to create the displacement time series of the region, 11 radar images of the ALOS/PALSAR satellite within the time range of 2008 to 2010 were obtained and analyzed via Small Baseline (SBAS). The slide active zones were investigated based on geological field studies and the geomorphological characteristics of the region verified the displacement of various parts of the slide. The analysis results demonstrated that the highest displacement rate along the satellite view in the northern region, older and younger is 51, 46 and 70 mm/year, respectively, distancing from the satellite.