Mine surface subsidence monitoring due to impacts of underground mining using persistent scatterer interferometry

Abstract

The Singhbhum shear zone in India is well known for its historical underground copper mining activity. As a consequence, today some abandoned underground mines pose a serious risk to the local people and property. Thus it is essential for a long-term wide-range monitoring technique to map the surface subsidence over the mining areas. In this study, it has been tried to establish occurrence of ground subsidence with an advanced differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar technology called persistent scatterer interferometry, which is known for its capability of high-precision monitoring. The results clearly indicate trends of surface subsidence over abandoned mining regions.