Land subsidence in mahyar plain, central iran,investigated using envisat sar data

Abstract

In recent decades land subsidence and its associated fissures have been observed in many plain aquifers of Iran. Knowledge of the deformation field in groundwater basins is of basic interest for understanding the cause and mechanism of deformation phenomenon, and for mitigating hazard related to it. In this paper the result of Envisat InSAR time-series analysis for monitoring land subsidence in Mahyar Plain, Central Iran, is presented. Longterm extraction of groundwater, which started in 1970 with the development of agriculture in this area, has caused substantial subsidence and formation of many earth fissures in Mahyar. Our analysis indicates significant subsidence bowl south of Mahyar plain with an elliptical pattern directed northwest–southeast along the axis of the plain. The velocity map obtained by the time-series analysis of InSAR data shows a maximum subsidence velocity of _9 cm/year in the line of sight from the ground to the satellite in the year 2003–2006. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.