Use of InSAR to Support Dam Health Monitoring Programs

Dam health monitoring requires acquisition and synthesis of data from multiple sources to provide asset owners with an accurate assessment of the structural health and risks associated with a dam structure. Using the freely available Sentinel-1 SAR dataset, Stantec has incorporated satellite based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) remote sensing as a supplement to traditional monitoring techniques. InSAR provides unique capabilities to both increase spatial coverage and the extant data set allows for recovery of five years of deformation history. Presented in this manuscript are case-studies of how InSAR was used to enhance existing monitoring programs by providing an additional source of deformation measurement for multiple dam structures. The benefits of InSAR include independent monitoring of ground/structure movement, increased spatial coverage, historical datasets to inform deployment of in-situ instrumentation, and reduced monitoring costs.