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Monitoring of a Creeping Landslide in California using Spaceborne Radar

Interferometry

O. Suncar1, D. Dueri2, D. Yang3, S. Buckley4, and E.M. Rathje1

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1
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, University of
Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712
2
Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of
Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712
3
Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712
4
Radar Algorithms and Processing Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
91109

ABSTRACT

Radar interferometry using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and the Persistent
Scatterer approach (PS-InSAR) uses the differences in the phases of nearly-coincident
SAR images collected at different times to measure the surface movements that occur
along the radar line-of-sight (LOS). PS-InSAR analysis was applied to the Penitencia
Creek landslide located in the hills east of San Jose, CA. Deformations at Penitencia
Creek have been monitored continuously using inclinometers since 1972 and these
measurements indicate most of the landslide is moving at a rate of between 0.25 to
0.7 cm/year. PS-InSAR derived deformations of the persistent scatterers on the
landslide were referenced to a control point off of the landslide, and the resulting
deformations were geometrically corrected to represent downslope movements. The
downslope deformation rates were compared with those measured via traditional
means, such as slope inclinometers. These comparisons indicated that the remote
sensing measurements of deformation agreed favorably with the field, with the
InSAR analysis indicating deformation rates of about 0.5 cm/yr.

INTRODUCTION

Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a very powerful

remote sensing technique for measuring earth deformations. It uses two or more
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to generate maps of surface deformation using
differences in the phase of the waves returning to the satellite or aircraft. This paper
applies the Persistent Scatterer InSAR approach (PS-InSAR) to measure deformations
of the creeping Penitencia Creek Landslide in California. Deformation rates over the
time period between 1992 and 2001 are computed from the PS-InSAR approach and
compared to deformation rates interpreted from field monitoring by inclinometers.

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PENITENCIA CREEK LANDSLIDE

The Penitencia Creek Landslide is located northeast of San Jose, California at the
base of the Diablo Range (Figure 1). The landslide is a large (approximately 0.9 km
by 1.3 km), ancient landslide that occurs within gentling sloping hills (slopes between
8 and 12.5) that abut the Santa Clara Valley. The landslide has been investigated by
geologists and geotechnical engineers since the early-1970s because of the
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construction of Penitencia Water Treatment Plant (PWTP) by the Santa Clara Valley
Water District. A series of reports from the Santa Clara Valley Water District, as
summarized by Nelson et al. (2007), describe the landslide geometry, subsurface
characteristics, and deformation rates and provide a good overview of the landslide.

H
H--- 444
H
PCL
III---222222
III---222555
III---222111
III---222333 III---222444
San Jose III---222000
H
H---111
H
H
H---333
H

Figure 1. Penitencia Creek Landslide (PCL) and locations of field inclinometers

used in this study (Satellite imagery © Google Earth).

The primary slip surface of the landslide is located between 30 and 60 m below the
ground surface. The subsurface materials within the landslide deformation zone
consist predominantly of highly plastic, over-consolidated claystone units of the Plio-
Pleistocene Santa Clara Formation that contain sodium smectite clay minerals
(Nelson et al. 2007). It is estimated that the landslide initiated approximately 20,000
years ago, moving at much faster rates than it is currently moving, and the lower
section of the landslide is estimated to have moved over 500 m (Nelson et al. 2007).
Because of these large deformations the subsurface clays are expected to be at their
residual friction angle. The drained residual friction angle of the claystone is
estimated to be between 5 and 8. The deformations at the site are driven
predominantly by the residual friction angle of the clay (5 to 8) being smaller than
the slope angle (8 to 12.5).

Monitoring over the last 35 years has included a large suite of inclinometers, as well
as survey lines. Nelson et al. (2007) reported that the long term average deformation
rates indicated by the inclinometers are between 0.25 and 1.0 cm/yr, with the largest
deformations concentrated along the western and southern toes (Figure 2). Most of
the landslide appears to be moving at a rate between 0.25 and 0.7 cm/yr (Figure 2).
The inclinometers that were in service over the time period considered in this study

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are shown in Figure 1, and the average deformation rates for these inclinometers over
the time period of 1992-2001 are listed in Table 1. The majority of the inclinometers
in the central part of the landslide indicate deformation rates between 0.4 and 0.8
cm/yr, which are consistent with the long term deformation rates reported by Nelson
et al. (2007). Inclinometers I-20 and H-3, located near the toe (Figure 1), display
larger deformation rates that are above 1.0 cm/yr, although inclinometer H-1
(adjacent to H-3) only displays a deformation rate of 0.6 cm/yr.
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Figure 2. Horizontal deformation rates for ~ 2005 estimated by Nelson et al. (2007)
for the Penitencia Creek Landslide.

Table 1. Average deformation rates along slip

surface between 1992-2001 at inclinometer
locations shown in Figure 1.
Deformation rate on
Location
slip surface (cm/yr)
I-20 1.1
I-21 0.8
I-22 0.6
I-23 0.4
I-24 0.4
I-25 0.6
H-1 0.6
H-3 1.4
H-4 0.2

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RADAR INTERFEROMETRY

In InSAR studies, the difference in the phases of nearly-coincident SAR images

collected at different times are related to surface topography as well as any movement
that may have occurred along the radar line-of-sight (LOS). The deformation
signature is isolated by removing the phase due to topography using either another
interferogram that contains only topographic phase information or by using an
independent digital elevation model (DEM) to simulate the topographic phase. The
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result is a differential interferogram in which the topographic signature has been

removed. Traditional InSAR has been used to measure cm-level displacements while
advanced InSAR time series techniques can resolve mm-level deformation.
However, the interferometric data decorrelates for large surface deformation gradients
in which the deformations change abruptly over short spatial distances. Because
landslides represent moving areas that are surrounded by stationary areas, InSAR
measurements are best suited for landslides with small to moderate deformation
levels.

The main limitations in using InSAR to identify deformation signatures are

decorrelation and atmospheric variations between acquisitions. Decorrelation occurs
when individual scatterers within a pixel are rearranged or move incoherently
between acquisitions by a distance on the order of the radar wavelength or greater.
Thus, decorrelation varies depending on the type of satellite used to acquire the
images (different radar wavelengths) and the phenomenon that is being measured. For
instance, the C-band (6-cm) wavelength used by the European ERS-1 and ERS-2
satellites results in urban areas being generally well-correlated but widespread
decorrelation is observed in vegetated areas. At longer wavelengths (e.g., the
Japanese ALOS PALSAR L-band (24-cm) wavelength), vegetation penetration is
possible and more coherence is observed in vegetated areas. ALOS also allows one to
measure larger surface deformation gradients as compared to previous C-band SAR
systems. Atmospheric variations can be minimized using advanced InSAR time series
techniques, such as variants of the Persistent Scatterer approach (PS-InSAR, e.g.,
Ferretti et al. 2000, 2001). PS-InSAR analysis requires a large number of SAR
acquisitions and a spatially dense set of persistent scatterers to properly estimate the
atmospheric phase screen, which makes this technique well-suited for measuring
deformation in urban areas where buildings provide a dense set of targets over long
periods of time. However, an underlying assumption in the approach is that the
deformations occur at approximately a constant velocity.

PS-InSAR processing (Ferretti et al. 2000, 2001) was applied to 48 ERS-1/2 C-band
SAR images to evaluate landslide movements over a 54 km2 area for the time period
from 1992 to 2001. Differential radar interferograms were formed between a
reference image and the other SAR images. An initial set of persistent scatterer (PS)
candidates were identified from pixels exhibiting stable radar intensities through the
stack of images. At this stage, differences between PS candidates are modeled as
consisting of signals from a LOS velocity difference, a height error difference and a
residual due to atmospheric effects, noise, and any deformation that is nonlinear

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through time (i.e., deviates from the constant velocity model). The LOS velocity
difference and height error difference are estimated for pairs of PS candidates and
removed to produce interferograms containing atmospheric effects, noise, and any
nonlinear deformation rates. These effects are separated by applying a succession of
spatial and temporal filters. The resulting atmospheric phase screens (APS) are
removed from the original interferograms. The final step in the processing is to
exhaustively search for PS by estimating a velocity and height error at every
interferogram pixel. The final set of PS consists of those pixels with sufficiently
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small residuals after their velocity and height error signals are removed from the
APS-free interferograms. The final products are a PS velocity map and deformation
time series for each of the PS.

North

Satellite 
LOS  Track
LOS

East

Vertical Section (Radar) Plan View (Radar)

North
Ground 
Deformation
Ground 
Deformation

East

Vertical Section Plan View 
(Ground Deformation) (Ground Deformation)
Figure 3. Geometry definitions for the LOS vector of the ERS-1/2 sensor and ground
deformation vector.

The deformations and deformation rates (i.e. velocity) produced by InSAR analyses
represent a change in length (called the range) of the radar’s line of sight (LOS).
Positive values indicate an increase in the LOS range and negative values indicate a
shortening. The direction of the radar LOS (Figure 3) is controlled by the orientation
of the track of the satellite (azimuth, ) and the angle of incidence of the radar (,
measured from vertical). The relationship between the LOS deformations and the
ground deformations can be computed from the unit vector of the look direction of
the radar (u) and the unit vector of ground deformation (v). The satellite acquisition

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geometry ( and ) is used to compute u, but assumptions are required regarding the
direction of landslide movement to compute v. For landslide studies it is common to
assume that the landslide movement is parallel to the slope in the downslope direction
(Figure 3). This direction can be defined in terms of the slope angle (, measured
from horizontal) and the downslope sliding direction (, measured counter-clockwise
from east).
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The vectors u and v are used to compute the ratio of LOS deformation to ground
deformation, which indicates the sensitivity of the LOS deformations to ground
deformations in different directions. The inverse of this ratio (i.e., ground
deformation / LOS deformation) is often called the Amplification Factor (AF) and it
is used to convert the computed radar LOS deformations into ground deformations.
Assuming a coordinate system of (x, y, and z) representing (east, north, and up), a
descending satellite track with right-looking SAR (i.e. the geometry for the ERS-1/2
satellites), the vectors u and v and resulting AF are computed as:

u = [ -cos   sin  sin   sin  -cos ] (1)

v = [ cos   cos  sin   cos  -sin ] (2)

AF = 1 / (u  vT) (3)

The look vector, u, for the ERS-1/2 sensors is [-0.38, 0.093, -0.92] based on  = 23
and  = 13.8. This vector was used to compute the Deformation Ratio (LOS /
Ground Deformation = 1 / AF) for different directions of ground deformation, as
defined by  and  (Figure 4). Figure 4 shows that the LOS deformations are most
sensitive to vertical deformations ( = 90, Deformation Ratio = 0.92) and
deformations that are close to being in line with the radar LOS ( ~ 90 -  = 67,  =
180 -  ~ 166, Deformation ratio = 1.0). As the deformations become more
horizontal (smaller ) and the direction further from the radar LOS, the sensitivity is
reduced. Figure 4 demonstrates that the sensitivity of InSAR to ground deformations
is significantly affected by the direction of deformation.

Considering the direction of ground deformation at the PCL (Figure 2), the dominant
downslope sliding direction (i.e., ) is 232 and the average slope angle (i.e., ) is
10. For this geometry and the ERS-1/2 look vector, the Deformation Ratio is 0.32
and the AF is 3.15, indicating a moderate level of LOS sensitivity. Deformation data
from Nelson et al. (2007), as shown in Figure 2, indicate that the southern portion of
the landslide is moving almost directly south ( = 270). The Deformation Ratio for
this sliding direction is only 0.07, indicating that the LOS deformations will not be
very sensitive to landslide deformations in this direction.

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Deformation Ratio (LOS / Ground; 1 / AF)
0.5
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‐0.5 Beta = 0
Beta = 20
Beta = 45
Beta = 75
Assumes ERS‐1/2look vector
Beta = 90
‐1
0 100 200 300 400
Theta (degrees)

Figure 4. Sensitivity of ERS-1/2 LOS deformation to ground deformation for

different orientations of ground deformation.

DEFORMATION RESULTS

The PS-InSAR analyses identified a total of 6928 PS within the study area, most of
which are located within the more densely populated area to the southwest of the
landslide. The identified PS are shown in Figure 5 and the computed LOS
deformation rates are indicated by color. The majority of PS in the study area (Figure
5a) display LOS deformation rates close to 0.0 and the average LOS deformation rate
is -0.1 cm/yr. Large, positive LOS deformation rates are observed for the PS in close
proximity to the PCL.

A more detailed view of the approximately 100 PS in the vicinity of the landslide is
shown in Figure 5b. Note that a smaller density of PS is identified within the
landslide area because there are fewer structures present to act as PS. Most of the PS
within the limits of the landslide display LOS deformation rates on the order of 0.15
to 0.25 cm/yr. There is a cluster of PS along the southern boundary with much
smaller velocities and some are negative. This area represents the section of the
landslide where deformations are predominantly in the southerly direction, which
makes the LOS deformations less sensitive to the ground deformations. In addition to
the deformations within the mapped landslide, the PS analysis indicates a zone of
large deformation north of the mapped limits of the landslide. The PS in this area
have LOS deformation rates on the order of 0.25 to 0.4 cm/yr. These results indicate
that significant deformation is occurring outside the mapped extent of the landslide.

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(a)

LOS Deformation Rate (cm/yr)

< -0.5 > 0.5

Figure 5. Computed deformation rates for PS within (a) the entire study zone and (b)
the landslide area (Satellite imagery © Google Earth).

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Figure 6. Histogram of LOS deformation rates for PS in the study area and within
the landslide only.

A histogram of the LOS deformation rates for the identified PS is shown in Figure 6.
In this figure the LOS deformation rates for the entire study area are compared with
those from the landslide area only. It is clear that there is a significant difference in
the distribution of deformation in these areas. The average LOS deformation rate is
-0.1 cm/yr for the study area and it is +0.18 cm/yr for the landslide. Both data sets
have a standard deviation of about 0.1 cm/yr.

To compare the LOS deformation rates with the field data, they must be converted to
ground deformations using the amplification factor computed for the assumed
direction of ground deformation. Amplifying the average LOS deformation rate of
+0.18 cm/yr by the previously computed AF of 3.15 results in an average ground
deformation rate of +0.55 cm/yr. This deformation rate is very similar to the
deformation rates indicated by the slope inclinometers (Table 1).

CONCLUSIONS

PS-InSAR represents a remote sensing technique that can provide estimates of ground
deformations over time. The PS-InSAR approach was applied to measure
deformation rates of the creeping Penitencia Creek Landslide near San Jose,
California. 48 SAR images from the ERS-1/2 satellites acquired between 1992 and
2001 were used in the analysis, and the PS-InSAR processing identified over 6000
Persistent Scatterers (PS) in the study area and about 100 in the landslide area. The
average deformation rate of the PS located in the landslide area was 0.55 cm/yr,

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which agrees favorably with the range of 0.25 to 0.7 cm/yr indicated by field
inclinometer data.

One shortcoming of the PS results in this study is the low density of PS identified
within the landslide due to the paucity of structures to act as PS. Using longer
wavelength SAR imagery (e.g., 24-cm wavelength (L-band) ALOS PALSAR) may
result in more PS being identified in vegetated zones where no structures exist. This
approach will be investigated in the future.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Financial support for this work was provided by the NASA-ROSES program under
Grant Number NNX09AK75G. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the views of NASA.

REFERENCES
Ferretti, A., Prati, C., and Rocca, F., 2000. “Nonlinear subsidence rate estimation
using Permanent Scatterers in Differential SAR Interferometry,” IEEE Transactions
on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 38(5), 2202–2212.

Ferretti, A., Prati, C., and Rocca, F., 2001. “Permanent Scatterers in SAR
Interferometry,” IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 39(1), 8–20.

Nelson, J., Volpe, R.L., and Tepel, R.E. 2007. “Monitoring a Slowly Moving
Landslide Is Anything But Boring,” 1st North American Landslide Conference, AEG
Special publication No. 23, Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists,
Denver, CO, Paper 77.

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