Monitoring historical urban infrastructure using multi-temporal InSAR techniques

Abstract

Ranked tenth in the world regarding seismic risk, Bucharest is the most seismically exposed capital in Europe and has the highest risk among Romanian cities. Location on two faults, high population and preponderantly old buildings make Bucharest even more vulnerable to strong earthquakes that occur periodically in Romania. In order to prevent major live and material losses in the future, authorities are trying to generate a map of buildings classified according to the risk of collapsing at the next earthquakes. In an attempt to reduce the time necessary to identify buildings at high risk we propose using InSAR technology that detects fine movements of objects. In our study we are interested to find out if satellite measurements are able to distinguish between effects produced by damage and those brought about as a result of changes in for example non-structural components and the environmental conditions. Also it is important to consider whether the dynamic characteristics can be identified with the required accuracy using InSAR techniques. In this purpose we compare building behavior identified from satellite data with that resulted from terrestrial monitoring using high precision techniques. In the current paper, we present the methodology of rating buildings using health indices, and discuss possible outcomes