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

该奖项资助研究开发远程检测地面和民用基础设施的小变形的方法。天然和建造的土工设施，如水坝、挡土结构和土坡，是民用基础设施的重要组成部分。监测岩土工程设施的移动和变形，对于确保工程性能可接受和识别对公众的潜在危害非常重要。理想情况下，问题应该在运动幅度小且局部区域的早期阶段被发现。在实践中，由于岩土工程设施的巨大规模和当前变形监测技术的局限性，这可能具有挑战性。本研究将集中于应用和增强一种新兴的遥感技术“地基干涉雷达”，用于探测和测量岩土工程设施的小变形和局部变形。这项研究的最终目标是开发和改进技术，以便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。地面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。过去对地面干涉雷达的研究主要集中在测量大空间尺度的地表运动（如滑坡），其中感兴趣的表面积可能是数万平方米，覆盖数千个雷达地面像素。本研究将重点研究地面干涉雷达在探测小（亚毫米）和局部（几平方米）运动中的应用，其中运动区域可能是像素级或更小的尺寸。收集和处理干涉雷达数据的传统方法（为基于卫星的研究开发）并未针对这些应用进行设计和优化。地面干涉雷达对小变形和局部变形的探测还没有深入的研究。独特的现有数据集将与本项目收集的数据结合使用，以达到以下目标：(1)确定利用地基干涉雷达探测和测量亚像元到像元尺度地表运动的有效数据收集和处理程序；(2)利用对照研究量化地基干涉雷达测量亚像元到像元尺度地表运动的精度和不确定性；(3)研究模拟和减轻大气效应和其他噪声的方法。项目目标的成功完成将导致地面干涉雷达应用于测量地面和民用基础设施变形方面的知识水平的提高。

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.