Applicability and Feasibility of InSAR-Based Mining Subsidence Monitoring Under Overburden Isolated Grouting Backfill Mining Conditions.
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| Title: | Applicability and Feasibility of InSAR-Based Mining Subsidence Monitoring Under Overburden Isolated Grouting Backfill Mining Conditions. |
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| Authors: | Zhou, Zhengpei1 (AUTHOR), Niu, Yufen1,2 (AUTHOR) niuyufen@hebeu.edu.cn, Lu, Zhong2,3 (AUTHOR), Yang, Xuhai3,4 (AUTHOR), Zhang, Zhaojiang1 (AUTHOR), Ju, Ziheng2,4 (AUTHOR), Zhao, Jinqi2,3 (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Remote Sensing. May2026, Vol. 18 Issue 10, p1476. 23p. |
| Subjects: | Mine subsidences, Radar interferometry, Deformations (Mechanics), Synthetic aperture radar, Land subsidence, Strains & stresses (Mechanics) |
| Abstract: | Highlights: What are the main findings? Under comparable surface-cover conditions, increases in deformation magnitude and deformation gradient can lead to significant InSAR coherence decay, and areas of large-gradient deformation exhibit a high degree of spatial correspondence with low-coherence or decorrelated zones. Overburden isolated grouting backfilling technology exhibits significant advantages in controlling surface subsidence and deformation gradients, achieving a surface subsidence reduction of up to 83.3%. This allows the subsidence-affected area to maintain relatively high coherence, thereby enabling InSAR to retrieve high-accuracy and continuous deformation time-series results. What are the implications of the main findings? In conventional caving-mined areas, when subsidence monitoring is conducted using Sentinel-1 C-band data and a conventional SBAS-InSAR/MintPy processing workflow, the large-magnitude and large-gradient deformation in the central part of the subsidence basin readily causes rapid coherence decay and phase-unwrapping difficulties, thereby limiting the applicability of InSAR for subsidence monitoring and making it difficult to support stable monitoring and risk assessment of surface subsidence and its secondary hazards. Overburden isolated grouting backfilling can effectively control both the magnitude and gradient of surface deformation, thereby making the Sentinel-1 C-band data and SBAS-InSAR processing workflow adopted in this study well suited to surface subsidence monitoring. This can provide useful guidance for green, safe, and efficient mining, as well as for surface subsidence monitoring under the "three-under" conditions. With its high spatiotemporal resolution and wide-area coverage, InSAR technology has become an essential tool for monitoring mining-induced surface subsidence. However, the large-gradient deformation caused by the traditional caving method has hindered this technology's widespread application in subsidence monitoring. With the increasing adoption of backfill mining techniques, both the magnitude and the gradient of surface deformation have been significantly reduced, creating new opportunities for applying InSAR to subsidence monitoring in mining areas. Nevertheless, current research on InSAR under backfill mining conditions remains relatively limited, particularly with respect to the applicability of time-series InSAR techniques in such settings. In this study, the Wu'an mining area, characterized by the traditional caving method, and the Fengfeng mining area, which employs overburden isolated grouting backfill mining, were selected as representative cases. By integrating Small Baseline Subset InSAR (SBAS-InSAR) time-series deformation results with ground-based leveling measurements, we comparatively analyzed the interferometric coherence characteristics and deformation monitoring performance associated with the two mining methods. We then evaluated the monitoring applicability and engineering feasibility of InSAR under overburden isolated grouting backfill mining conditions. The results indicate that, under similar surface land cover conditions, the gradient of surface deformation exerts a strong influence on interferometric coherence. Comparison with leveling measurements shows that the RMSE in the Fengfeng mining area under overburden isolated grouting backfill mining is at least 68.2% lower than that in the Wu'an mining area under caving mining. Moreover, overburden isolated grouting backfill mining can effectively mitigate mining-induced surface deformation, limiting the maximum subsidence in the Fengfeng mining area to less than 300 mm and to less than 200 mm in village areas. Using Sentinel-1 data and a conventional SBAS-InSAR processing workflow, InSAR demonstrates higher reliability and applicability for surface subsidence monitoring in mining areas under overburden isolated grouting backfilling conditions than in those under caving mining conditions. This study aims to provide a useful reference for mining subsidence monitoring based on Sentinel-1 C-band data and a conventional SBAS-InSAR processing workflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Engineering Source |
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| Abstract: | Highlights: What are the main findings? Under comparable surface-cover conditions, increases in deformation magnitude and deformation gradient can lead to significant InSAR coherence decay, and areas of large-gradient deformation exhibit a high degree of spatial correspondence with low-coherence or decorrelated zones. Overburden isolated grouting backfilling technology exhibits significant advantages in controlling surface subsidence and deformation gradients, achieving a surface subsidence reduction of up to 83.3%. This allows the subsidence-affected area to maintain relatively high coherence, thereby enabling InSAR to retrieve high-accuracy and continuous deformation time-series results. What are the implications of the main findings? In conventional caving-mined areas, when subsidence monitoring is conducted using Sentinel-1 C-band data and a conventional SBAS-InSAR/MintPy processing workflow, the large-magnitude and large-gradient deformation in the central part of the subsidence basin readily causes rapid coherence decay and phase-unwrapping difficulties, thereby limiting the applicability of InSAR for subsidence monitoring and making it difficult to support stable monitoring and risk assessment of surface subsidence and its secondary hazards. Overburden isolated grouting backfilling can effectively control both the magnitude and gradient of surface deformation, thereby making the Sentinel-1 C-band data and SBAS-InSAR processing workflow adopted in this study well suited to surface subsidence monitoring. This can provide useful guidance for green, safe, and efficient mining, as well as for surface subsidence monitoring under the "three-under" conditions. With its high spatiotemporal resolution and wide-area coverage, InSAR technology has become an essential tool for monitoring mining-induced surface subsidence. However, the large-gradient deformation caused by the traditional caving method has hindered this technology's widespread application in subsidence monitoring. With the increasing adoption of backfill mining techniques, both the magnitude and the gradient of surface deformation have been significantly reduced, creating new opportunities for applying InSAR to subsidence monitoring in mining areas. Nevertheless, current research on InSAR under backfill mining conditions remains relatively limited, particularly with respect to the applicability of time-series InSAR techniques in such settings. In this study, the Wu'an mining area, characterized by the traditional caving method, and the Fengfeng mining area, which employs overburden isolated grouting backfill mining, were selected as representative cases. By integrating Small Baseline Subset InSAR (SBAS-InSAR) time-series deformation results with ground-based leveling measurements, we comparatively analyzed the interferometric coherence characteristics and deformation monitoring performance associated with the two mining methods. We then evaluated the monitoring applicability and engineering feasibility of InSAR under overburden isolated grouting backfill mining conditions. The results indicate that, under similar surface land cover conditions, the gradient of surface deformation exerts a strong influence on interferometric coherence. Comparison with leveling measurements shows that the RMSE in the Fengfeng mining area under overburden isolated grouting backfill mining is at least 68.2% lower than that in the Wu'an mining area under caving mining. Moreover, overburden isolated grouting backfill mining can effectively mitigate mining-induced surface deformation, limiting the maximum subsidence in the Fengfeng mining area to less than 300 mm and to less than 200 mm in village areas. Using Sentinel-1 data and a conventional SBAS-InSAR processing workflow, InSAR demonstrates higher reliability and applicability for surface subsidence monitoring in mining areas under overburden isolated grouting backfilling conditions than in those under caving mining conditions. This study aims to provide a useful reference for mining subsidence monitoring based on Sentinel-1 C-band data and a conventional SBAS-InSAR processing workflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 20724292 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/rs18101476 |
