Karst investigation program guided by synthetic aperture radar

摘要

The focus of this paper will be on an innovative technology that provides a comprehensive dam safety surveillance alternative for use when conventional alignment and settlement surveys are not adequate and/or where karst features are a concern. This paper documents the results of a study of the movement of a major dam and detection of karst features in the vicinity of the dam using satellite based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) surveys. This technology has the capability to provideone hundred percent coverage of structures and detect surface movements related to some subsurface defects before they become major performance issues. Three years of satellite radar analyses are directly compared with field investigation of collapse features and surface movements. Extensive field investigations were performed and subsurface borings were made to investigate potential karst features through targeting of satellite detected surface settlement not detectable through conventional surveys ordirect inspection. The correlation between detected surface movements and karst features was exceptional. This technology is cost competitive with conventional surveys and is available and can be implemented almost anywhere in the world where conditionsare favorable.