The contribution of spaceborne SAR interferometry to geomorphological analyses

Every year slope instabilities cause large socio-economic losses on life and property worldwide. Indeed, the casualties caused by mass movements are among the highest in the industrialized world. In this contest the SLAM project is aimed to the implementation of landslides mapping and monitoring service that can be integrated into the current landslide management procedures. The innovative aspect of the SLAM project is the integration of the SAR techniques and EO data with the in situ documentation currently in use for the landslide monitoring. In particular, SLAM is designed to realise three types of products: Landslide Motion Survey, Landslide Displacement Monitoring and Landslide Susceptibility Mapping. The realization of SLAM project, entirely funded by ESA, is carried out by an international Consortium led by Planetek Italia (I) and formed by other five partners: Tele-Rilevamento Europa (I), Gamma Remote Sensing (CH), Spacebel (B), Geotest (CH) and Earth Science Department of the University of Firenze (I). For the Italian service cases the interferometric analysis is based on the PS technique, developed and patented by the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and improved by Tele-Rilevamento Europa. For the Swiss service cases, multi-pass SAR interferometry, including the Interferometric Point Target Analysis (IPTA), is applied by Gamma Remote Sensing.