InSAR – Dam Safety Considerations and Applications

This webinar will be focused on interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) applications for geotechnical engineers engaged in dam safety. InSAR is a satellite-based, remote sensing technology capable of measuring ground & infrastructure displacement with mm-scale precision. The technology is deployed as an ongoing monitoring tool to help mitigate geotechnical risk across a number of verticals. InSAR is being adopted by geotechnical engineers in mining, oil & gas, transportation, government and urban infrastructure sectors as a means to feasibly identify subtle surface displacements both in the past and present. Such surface displacements provide insights into potential slope instability, internal erosion, landslide induced damage to assets, settlement related failure modes of assets etc. The webinar will introduce the technology methodology, and work into real industry examples/results. Outline:

The InSAR methodology used on a hydroelectric dam may change depending on the target application. Therefore, in order to maximize the success of a program, users must understand the appropriate risk mitigation in which this technology should be applied, and should be equipped with the knowledge of it’s relative strengths/weaknesses. As such, the following topics will be discussed: 

1. Introduction to InSAR
2. SAR Satellite Data (Frequencies, wavelengths, precision, resolution)
3. InSAR Methodology
4. Strengths/Limitations
5. Operational case studies

  Eligible for 2 PDHs