Novel perspectives in the monitoring of transport infrastructures by sentinel-1 and cosmo-skymed multi-temporal SAR interferometry

In recent years, successful applications of the Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) for the monitoring of subsidence and deformations in transport infrastructures have been reported in the literature. The main advantage of this technique compared to other non-destructive surveying methodologies is in the possibility to perform fast network-level surveys as well as the provision of time-series of the displacements by multi-temporal data acquisitions. Given the medium ground resolution, C-band imagery are usually not employed for structural transport infrastructure monitoring as it is considered unlikely to obtain sufficiently accurate information. However, this has not been thoroughly investigated until now. This study presents a novel approach for transport assets monitoring, based on the synergistic use of medium resolution (C-Band) and high resolution (X-Band) SAR imagery. To this effect, a multi-temporal SAR Interferometry analysis of high and medium-resolution datasets is performed on a runway of the Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in Rome, Italy. The data were acquired by the Sentinel-1A and the COSMO-SkyMed missions, respectively. A comparison between the results from medium and high-resolution datasets demonstrates the viability of using multi-frequency SAR imagery, and pave the way to the development of new methodologies for the monitoring of transport infrastructures.