UK researchers create world’s first country-wide land subsidence map

Produced from over 2.5TB of radar data acquired over two years by the Sentinel-1 satellite, part of the EU’s Copernicus programme, the map is claimed to be the first of its kind to show a detailed nationwide picture of land motion and subsidence.

The technology behind the map could help developers of energy and transport infrastructure – such as the impending HS2 project - improve their understanding of land subsidence and mitigate against the risks this poses at a far earlier stage in a project’s development.

The relative land motion map of Scotland for 2015-2017. Subsidence is indicated by the red and yellow colours, blue indicates uplift, whereas green represents stable ground.

Whilst existing land-motion studies have tended to focus on urban areas, the Nottingham-developed map has also been able to look in detail at rural areas thanks to a technique known as Intermittent Small Baseline (ISBAS) analysis developed by University of Nottingham spin-out Geomatic Ventures Ltd (GVL).