GRSG 35th Conference 2024 Abstract

Title: InSAR Monitoring for Mining Applications: Addressing Challenges in Southeast Asia

Author: Fabrizio Novali

Organisation: TRE ALTAMIRA

In the mining industry, effective monitoring of assets such as tailing storage facilities, open pits, and waste dumps is of paramount importance for operational efficiency, safety, and environmental compliance. While traditional survey techniques provide valuable insights, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has emerged as a powerful tool for strategic monitoring of surface instabilities. However, the dynamic nature of mining environments, with frequent surface changes and associated loss of signal coherence, presents significant challenges to the application of conventional InSAR approaches.

Traditional multi-temporal InSAR methods, such as SqueeSAR, rely on consistent signal coherence over time to generate reliable displacement measurements. However, in active mining areas, activities like excavation, blasting, and material transport can cause abrupt surface changes, leading to significant decorrelation and data gaps.

To address these challenges, TRE ALTAMIRA has developed a new processing chain that maximizes information extraction from dynamic mining environments. This approach merges the broad spatial coverage of conventional InSAR monitoring — which captures displacement snapshots between two successive radar acquisitions — with the ability to track displacement trends over time. A key advantage of this novel methodology is its adaptability to varying signal coherence.

By employing advanced change detection and coherence estimation techniques, it can intelligently identify and leverage even temporary coherent scatterers. Simultaneously, it can filter out unreliable measurements from areas undergoing active groundworks. This selective approach maximizes the information content of the deliverables, providing a more comprehensive understanding of ground behavior across the entire mining site.

The effectiveness of this innovative InSAR approach has been demonstrated in two active mining areas in Southeast Asia. These sites present a range of challenges, including significant surface changes due to groundworks, a pronounced rainy season that can impact signal coherence, and diverse assets requiring monitoring. The results highlight the potential of this novel approach to enhance monitoring capabilities in active mining environments worldwide, contributing to safer and more sustainable mining practices.