Disclaimer: This material is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at the time of publication, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information, and parts may not function in current web browsers. Visit https://espo.nasa.gov for information about our current projects.
Sinkhole activity in west-central Florida is a major hazard for people and property. Increasing frequency of sinkhole collapse is often related to an accelerated use of groundwater and land resources. In this work, we use radar interferometry acquired over a selected region in Hernando County in west-central Florida to observe small localized deformation possibly caused by sinkhole activity. The data used for the study consist of acquisitions from one TerraSAR-X frame covering a time span of approximately 1.7 years with spatial resolution of 0.25 by 0.60 m. We applied the Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) technique using the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS). Results reveal several areas of localized subsidence at rates ranging from -3.7 to -4.9 mm/yr. Ground truthing and background verification of the subsiding locations confirmed the relationship of the subsidence with sinkhole presence.