Relation between on-field and InSAR data on landslide-induced damage

The consequences of landslide events, which are among the most widespread natural hazards worldwide, are relevant in both economic and civil issues. The Italian territory is one of the main representatives. For this reason, the study of landslide-induced damage and its monitoring by remote sensing data are effective tools to improve the knowledge of events and to avoid adverse consequences. The present study focused on the efficiency analysis of the relation between damage classes identified on edifices by field campaigns, and landslide kinematic parameters recorded by InSAR techniques were investigated in two Italian sites. Persistent scatterers (PS) derived from the processing of ENVISAT and COSMO-SkyMed radar images were considered to analyse the behaviour of buildings to be compared with their rate of displacement. The two study areas were the Colle Lapponi – Piano Ovetta basin, strongly affected by a landslide in Agnone (Molise region, southern Italy), and the southern sector of the Volterra town (Tuscany region, central Italy), extensively affected by soil erosion and mass movements. In order to validate the reliability of the relationship found between the classes of damage affecting the structures and the velocities re-projected along the steepest slope direction, a symmetric matrix was created. As result, a map of the efficiency of the relation between recorded damage and deformation velocities was tested in two different areas. The resulting maps can be useful to better localize the possible area prone to be damaged in case of recorded displacement and consequently for managing the territory and the urban expansion.