PERSISTENT SCATTERER SAR INTERFEROMETRY APPLICATIONS ON LANDSLIDES IN CARPATHIANS (SOUTHERN POLAND)

This paper presents preliminary results of the application of Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) supported with detailed field landslide mapping. The research was focused on the areas located near the towns Rabka Zdroj and Jordanow located in southern-central Poland where detailed landslide mapping campaigns were preformed in the summer of 2009. According to the field experience the average spatial density of landslide occurrence in both areas is up to 3 landslides/sq km. The application of various Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry techniques on the above-mentioned areas was very difficult due to the very rough topography, vegetation and forest cover, and the long season with the snow cover. Following previous successful studies on other rural areas, PSI technique was therefore applied. Field work has been carried out within the frame of a national project launched in 2008 aimed to create a detailed database of all landslides in Poland. The areas where landslide problems are extremely important are the Polish Carpathians. As in previous experiments on a sparse urbanized area we noticed that it is still possible to successfully detect a number of persistent scatterers but, the interpretation of the associated deformation is difficult. However, based on cartographic data collected during the field mapping campaign it is possible to significantly improve analysis and interpretation of PSI results.