Spatial analysis of factors influencing land subsidence using the OLS Model (Case Study: Fahlian Aquifer)

Abstract

During the past years, land subsidence due to different reasons such as uncontrolled population growth, overuse of groundwater resources, tectonic and other factors has led to numerous challenges and problems for agricultural lands, residential buildings, roads, power transmission lines, etc. Hence, it is important to monitor the rate of subsidence and address its influencing cause or causes to control and monitor risk. Sentinel-1A data were used in Sentinels Application Platform (SNAP) in this study to examine the subsidence status in the Fahlian aquifer and determine the changes in the land surface in the specified time period. Grace satellite was also used to monitor the changes in the aquifer groundwater fluctuations. OLS model was used to perform spatial analysis of parameters influencing subsidence, the results of which indicated several influencing factors. Accordingly, the greatest impact on land subsidence was related to groundwater drawdown, altitude, and vegetation with probabilities of 0.002, 0.001, and 0.001%, respectively, indicating the significance of the mentioned parameters in the subsidence of the Fahlian aquifer. The output of the CSR, JPL, and CFZ algorithms showed a drawdown trend for the groundwater level since 2009, reaching about 20 cm in 2017. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.