Remotely Sensed Detection of Badland Erosion Using Multitemporal InSAR

We observe relatively high InSAR mean coherence levels over badlands, i.e. clayey bare soil areas, on a test site in the Basilicata region, in southern Italy. Time series of InSAR coherences on cascaded short-baseline image pairs, obtained from stacks of Sentinel-1 SAR images, exhibit oscillating behaviour, with significant correlation with cumulated rainfall levels on badland areas, while on other areas with crops or spontaneous vegetation the correlation is lower, and a seasonal trend is instead statistically significant. These observations seem to point to the possibility of investigating erosion phenomena over badland areas through InSAR time series, which involves a significant step forward, in terms of spatial and temporal resolution, with respect to traditional measurements which require repeated topographic surveys at long intervals, or sparse in-field point measurements.