INSAR AND FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF GROUND DEFORMATION AT LAKE URMIA CAUSEWAY (LUC), NORTHWEST IRAN

Abstract. Precise long-term deformation monitoring of causeways and bridges is of vital task for maintenance and management work related to transportation safety. In this study, we analyse the settlement of Lake Urmia Causeway (LUC), northwest Iran, using observations from InSAR and Finite Element Model (FEM) simulation. For InSAR processing, we analyse 58 SAR images of ENVISAT, ALOS and TerraSAR-X (TSX) using the SBAS technique to assess the settlement of embankments in the years 2003–2013. The InSAR results show deflation on both embankments with a peak velocity of > 5 cm/year in the satellite Line Of Sight (LOS) direction. The InSAR observations are then used to construct a settlement compaction model for the cross section at the distance of 4 km from the most western edge of the causeway, using a 2D Finite Element Model. Our FEM results suggest that settlement of the embankments will continue in the future due to consolidation phenomenon.