Mapping land subsidence in Jakarta, Indonesia using persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) technique with ALOS PALSAR

Abstract Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia. It is one of the largest cities with an around 10 million population as for 2010, covering an area of about 661 square kilometers. The land subsidence phenomena in several areas of Jakarta are well known for many years. Land subsidence does damage infrastructures in the city; therefore, it has to be closely monitored and analysed. In this paper, the authors have demonstrated the capability of the PALSAR sensor aboard the Japanese ALOS satellite for large-scale mapping of land subsidence in Jakarta. Mapping results were produced from 17 ALOS PALSAR L-band radar images using persistent scatterer radar interferometry (PSI). The GEOS-PSI software, developed by the Geodesy and Earth Observing Systems group at UNSW for PSI analysis, was used to detect and map those land subsidence. The results showed that the land in the area of Jakarta was deforming at different rates across several zones. The land subsidence measured from ALOS PALSAR imagery were cross-examined with the subsidence values obtained from 4 GPS campaign surveys by the authors at 19 stations between 2007 and 2010. The magnitudes and trends of the deformation obtained from both techniques agreed well in general for those pinpoints of GPS. After the removal of 2 suspected outliers in GPS measurements, the subsidence rate difference between the two techniques range from −29 to 6 mm/year, with a standard deviation of 9 mm/year and an average absolute difference of 8 mm/year. This research has suggested that PSI with L-band ALOS PALSAR data can be a promising technique to complement the GPS surveying for monitoring land subsidence in super large cities like Jakarta.