Use Case Description
Geohazards such as earthquakes, landslides, subsidence, volcanic activity, and related phenomena pose significant risks to human life, infrastructure, and the environment. Earth Observation (EO) provides a critical capability for diagnosing and monitoring these hazards by enabling wide-area, high-resolution, and frequent observations of the Earth’s surface and sub-surface changes.
Satellite EO data, particularly from radar missions such as Sentinel-1, supports the detection and measurement of ground deformation with millimetric precision through techniques such as Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR). These methods allow for the early identification of subsidence, slope instability, or tectonic movement—often before any visible impact occurs.
In addition, EO supports landslide risk management by enabling the development of landslide inventories, susceptibility assessments, and near real-time monitoring of terrain movement. Techniques such as advanced InSAR (SBAS, PSI) and time series offset tracking offer unparalleled accuracy in the mapping and modelling of landslides, feeding into early warning systems and supporting disaster recovery efforts.
