Enhancing Remote Scanning Technology for Detecting and Measuring Small and Localized Deformations

该奖项资助研究开发远程探测地表和民用基础设施微小变形的方法。 天然和人工建造的岩土工程设施，如水坝、挡土结构和土质边坡，是民用基础设施的重要组成部分。 监测岩土设施的移动和变形对于确保可接受的工程性能和识别对公众的潜在危害非常重要。 理想情况下，当运动幅度较小且区域局限时，应在早期发现问题。 在实践中，这可能是具有挑战性的，由于规模庞大的岩土工程设施和目前的变形监测技术的局限性。 这项研究将侧重于应用和加强一种新兴的遥感技术“地基干涉雷达”，以探测和测量岩土工程设施的小的和局部的变形。 这项研究的最终目标是开发和改进技术，可用于更好地了解民用基础设施的性能，在发展的早期阶段发现问题，并减轻自然灾害对社会的影响。地基干涉雷达是一种新兴的有源扫描技术，有可能填补岩土工程应用中变形测量能力的空白。 过去对地基干涉雷达的研究侧重于测量大空间尺度的地表移动（如滑坡），其中感兴趣的表面面积可能是数万平方米，覆盖数千个雷达地面像素。 这项研究将侧重于地面干涉雷达的应用，以检测小（亚毫米）和局部（几平方米）的移动，其中移动区域可能是像素级或更小的尺寸。 收集和处理干涉测量雷达数据的传统方法（为卫星研究而开发）并不是为这些应用而设计和优化的。 目前还没有关于地面干涉雷达探测小的局部变形的深入研究。 独特的现有数据集将与本项目收集的数据结合使用，以满足以下目标：（1）确定有效的数据收集和处理程序，以便使用地面干涉雷达探测和测量亚像素到像素尺度的表面移动，（2）利用对照研究，量化地基干涉雷达测量地下水变形的准确性和不确定性，像素到像素尺度的表面运动，以及（3）研究模拟和减轻大气影响和其他噪音的方法。项目目标的顺利完成将促进关于应用地基干涉雷达测量地面和民用基础设施变形的知识水平。

This award funds research to develop methods of remotely detecting small deformations of the ground surface and civil infrastructure. Natural and constructed geotechnical facilities, such as dams, retaining structures, and earthen slopes, are vital components of civil infrastructure. Monitoring movements and deformations of geotechnical facilities is important for ensuring acceptable engineering performance and identifying potential hazards to the public. Ideally, problems should be detected at an early stage when the movements are both small in magnitude and localized in area. In practice, this can be challenging due to the massive size of geotechnical facilities and the limitations of current deformation monitoring technology. This research will focus on application and enhancement of an emerging remote sensing technology "ground-based interferometric radar" for detecting and measuring small and localized deformations of geotechnical facilities. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop and improve technology that can be used to better understand the performance of civil infrastructure, detect problems at an early stage of development, and mitigate the effects of natural hazards on society.Ground-based interferometric radar is an emerging active-source, scanning technique that has the potential to fill a gap in deformation measurement capabilities for geotechnical engineering applications. Past studies of ground-based interferometric radar have focused on measuring large spatial-scale surface movements (e.g. landslides) where the surface area of interest may be tens of thousands of square meters and cover thousands of radar ground pixels. This study will focus on the application of ground-based interferometric radar for detecting small (sub-mm) and localized (a few m2) movements where the region of movement may be pixel scale or smaller in size. The conventional approach to collecting and processing interferometric radar data (developed for satellite-based studies) was not designed and optimized for these applications. There are no in-depth studies of ground-based interferometric radar for detecting small and localized deformations. Unique existing data sets will be used in conjunction with data collected from this project to meet the following objectives: (1) identify effective data collection and processing procedures for detecting and measuring sub-pixel to pixel scale surface movements using ground-based interferometric radar, (2) use controlled studies to quantify the accuracy and uncertainties in ground-based interferometric radar deformation measurements of sub-pixel to pixel scale surface movements, and (3) study methods to model and mitigate atmospheric effects and other noise. Successful completion of the project objectives will result in advancement of the state of knowledge regarding the application of ground-based interferometric radar for measuring deformations of the ground surface and civil infrastructure.