A short review on persistent scatterer interferometry techniques for surface deformation monitoring

Abstract

Technology advancement has urged the development of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to be upgraded and transformed. The main contribution of the InSAR technique is that the surface deformation changes measurements can achieve up to millimetre level precision. Environmental problems such as landslides, volcanoes, earthquakes, excessive underground water production, and other phenomena can cause the earth's surface deformation. Deformation monitoring of a surface is vital as unexpected movement, and future behaviour can be detected and predicted. InSAR time series analysis, known as Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI), has become an essential tool for measuring surface deformation. Therefore, this study provides a review of the PSI techniques used to measure surface deformation changes. An overview of surface deformation and the basic principles of the four techniques that have been developed from the improvement of Persistent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PSInSAR), which is Small Baseline Subset (SBAS), Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS), SqueeSAR and Quasi Persistent Scatterer (QPS) were summarised to perceive the ability of these techniques in monitoring surface deformation. This study also emphasises the effectiveness and restrictions of each developed technique and how they suit Malaysia conditions and environment. The future outlook for Malaysia in realising the PSI techniques for structural monitoring also discussed in this review. Finally, this review will lead to the implementation of appropriate techniques and better preparation for the country's structural development.