SkyGeo

In this insightful interview 🎬, Mariët Pors, from the Gemeente Rotterdam (Municipality of Rotterdam) shares how #InSAR analysis has become a game-changer for municipal planning. Rotterdam—a city built on deltaic sediments—faces continuous ground movement, making accurate subsidence monitoring critical for infrastructure resilience. 💡 Key takeaways from our collaboration with Rotterdam's Municipality: ✔️ City-wide subsidence mapping—revealing hidden risks before they become failures. ✔️ Proactive infrastructure planning—reducing long-term repair costs. ✔️ Expert interpretation of InSAR data—turning complex datasets into practical insights. #SkyGeo empowers municipalities around the world, to stay ahead of #subsidence challenges with cutting-edge analysis and interpretation. The question isn’t whether your city is moving—it’s whether you’re monitoring it properly. 📽️ Watch the full interview and learn how data-driven decision-making is shaping the future of urban resilience. #SmartCities #SubsidenceMonitoring #InfrastructureResilience

CO₂ Storage 🛰️ Satellite-based InSAR provides real-time insights into: - Land uplift & pressure buildup - Subsurface changes affecting CO₂ migration - Predictive analysis for storage security 🔍Let us show you how InSAR solutions secures carbon storage investments. #EnergyInnovation #CO2Storage #CarbonMonitoring #RiskPrevention #InSAR #SkyGeo

🌍 #FacesOfSkyGeo | Meet Our Experts 🌍 At SkyGeo, our strength lies in our people. Meet Liam Kelly, a #Geotechnical #InSAR Analyst within our Data Analytics (DA) team, specializing in remote sensing applications for mining. What Liam Does: ✅ Interferometric processing of the SAR images ✅ Analyzes InSAR data to separate true geotechnical movement from noise. ✅ Identifies which movements truly impact mining operations. ✅ Delivers actionable insights to clients through detailed reporting and strategic discussions. With hands-on experience in Western Australia’s mining sector—from exploration #geology to pit operations—Liam brings practical field expertise into advanced satellite-based monitoring. Beyond work, growing up in coastal Perth instilled a love for the ocean, travel, and an active lifestyle—a mindset that fuels precision and curiosity in the field of geotechnical risk management. Thanks for being an important part of the team, Liam! 🌟 #Mining #RemoteSensing #GeotechnicalEngineering

Our Final step 🔎: Step 6: Impact Visualization in SkyGeo’s 6-Step #InSAR 🛰️ Analysis of high rise buildings. Now we put all of this together to map the subsidence of the highrise building itself… and the induced response of the buildings around it We have carefully isolated the true subsidence signal of all the buildings in the area. We find the induced effects extend over an area extending 400 m / 1,200ft - so several city blocks away. We measure this subsidence bowl in two semi-symmetric segments … one half to the East and one half to the West. in reality it is probably more asymmetric. So after all this work, we make sure that a good visualization generates easy-to-interpret and easy-to-communicate message for engineers and city planners. ✅ Benefits: - Deliver high-resolution risk maps to prioritize mitigation - Provide actionable insights based on over a decade of InSAR expertise - From data to decisions: SkyGeo ensures every insight leads to proactive stability monitoring. We hope you enjoyed our 6-Step approach. If you are interested in learning more… Talk to us! #Smartinfrastructure #RiskManagement #GeotechnicalEngineering

🚨 Real-time forensic analysis with InSAR 🚨 Incredible to see how quickly we can assess structural failures with satellite data. The Wilhelminatoren collapse is a stark reminder of why continuous monitoring is crucial for infrastructure safety. 🔹 From colored dots to actionable insights—this is where the real work begins. 🔹 Rapid InSAR-based damage assessment helps decision-makers act faster. 🔹 This case highlights how SkyGeo’s real-time capabilities can make a difference in forensic investigations. We’re looking forward to further validating these findings and getting this crucial info into the right hands! #InSAR #StructuralMonitoring #InfrastructureSafety

How to use InSAR in planning for CCUS carbon capture and underground storage.     SkyGeo and Tony Kovscek's group at @Stanford University just published a paper on how deep InSAR analytics can be useful in managing #CCUS. First, the background. In order for #CCUS operators to get permitted by government for developing their injection site, they need to show a viable MMV plan. MMV = measurement, monitoring and verification. Meaning: show how you make sure that the CO2 volume you will pump into the underground actually does go in and stays in the reservoir acting as a perpetual CO2 container. Given that #InSAR has low cost of data acquisition, it can be an effective tool in the MMV plan to characterize long term reservoir containment. We do this in a process of inversion: we map surface uplift with millimeter precision and from that we estimate how the CO2 plume migrates into the reservoir.    One big problem though …  for many existing storage sites, we ==> don’t see much uplift at all during the CO2 plume migration. Not enough to see it with InSAR. The operational problem to solve: CCUS operators need to know if InSAR is going to work for their specific reservoir …  *before* they write it into their MMV programs for years.  And now they can. So, we worked with Tony Kovscek and Yunan Li to do a global sensitivity study when CO2 injection will lead to signal from InSAR. We developed a model to calculate if InSAR analysis can be used as a tool to measure the effectiveness of the reservoir for carbon storage. the model had three steps: 1. We predicted surface uplift in a geomechanical model for the expanding CO2 plume - for a reference site in California that is currently being investigated 2. We determined the long-term background InSAR deformation signal on the ground (= noise in the absence of any CO2 injection) with a variety of configurations. 3. Then we compared the two to do InSAR configuration (in this case enough uplift is expected to be 10-20x above the background InSAR signal so we assert we can monitor the CO2 plume migrating). in short: the approach we’ve created with Stanford U allows for CCUS operators to quickly assess if InSAR can work for their site as they create their MMV plan.   The paper is “Assessment of spatial monitoring of geological carbon storage using InSAR” and is published in the latest issue of Gas Science and Engineering, Volume 138, June 2025, 205591. For more info on how to do this feasibility assessment of InSAR, see the URL for the paper below. Interested in understanding InSAR for other sites? DM me. If you do not have a subscription to Gas Science and Eng, then DM me - we share copies for a limited time.  

🔎We continue with Step 5: #InSAR for the very long term: measuring over decades in SkyGeo’s 6-Step InSAR analysis of high rise buildings High rise buildings stand for very long times measured in decades. Over the long term, different radar missions acquire a variety #SAR imagery over cities … all of it usable. But when we do our #interferometric processing they may show different or even incompatible trends in motion 🛰️ In assessment of the resulting InSAR data we need to address this by taking the earlier steps 1-4 for each of these sensors’ time series and only then take Step 5: Data Harmonization ensures consistency by integrating InSAR data from multiple radar missions. This process duplicates the previous analytical steps across different datasets, aligning observations to refine the interpretation. Case Study: De Coopvaert, #Rotterdam. By harmonizing time series data from various satellite sources, we distinguished between natural background tilting and building-induced movement caused by structural loads over 20 years. Why is this step essential for understanding building-induced subsidence? ✅ Ensures consistent and comparable measurements over long times. ✅ Distinguishes widespread subsidence from localized structural shifts. ✅ Enhances decisio n-making for engineers and urban planners. InSAR data is only as valuable as its interpretation. At #SkyGeo, we go beyond data delivery—we extract meaning, ensuring actionable insights for long-term infrastructure resilience. Stay tuned for Step 6, where we bring these insights to life through impact visualization. Want to read the two original scientific journal articles on using InSAR for assessing building-induced subsidence risk around skyscrapers? ===> DM us #StructuralMonitoring #GeotechnicalRisk #InfrastructureResilience

📡 We’re proud to have had Michele Villari as part of our SkyGeo team!🌍 Over the past months, he has contributed to #geotechnical monitoring with dedication, collaborating with our talented #InSAR Data Analysts. His journey reflects the value of hands-on experience in advancing geospatial solutions. A huge thank you to Hanno Maljaars, Daan Molleman, Marjan De Vries and the entire team for fostering a collaborative environment where knowledge thrives🤝. We look forward to seeing Michele’s next steps in the geospatial industry! #SkyGeo #GeospatialMonitoring #Internship #RemoteSensing

We continue with our 🔍 SkyGeo's 6-Step Method. Step 4: Correction for building shape changes for #InSAR Analysis of high rise buildings 🏭. When analyzing high-rise building stability, not all detected movement is #geotechnical. The buildings themselves have intrinsic shape effects that must be eliminated from the analysis to ensure accurate foundation displacement assessments for the geotechnical engineers. One example is concrete creep — which leads to apparent gradual subsidence of the structure. InSAR measurements include this shortening of the building and must be carefully filtered to avoid misinterpretation. How we ensure geotechnical accuracy: ✔ Eliminating non-geotechnical displacement – Material creep like distorts raw InSAR data and must be excluded. ✔ Precision point selection – We only analyze InSAR points between 10-20 meters above NAP, ensuring creep effects are negligible. ✔ Filtering external influences – seasonal changes, wind effects, and thermal expansion can obscure subsidence trends—our method isolates true ground-induced movement. With careful InSAR interpretation, we isolate only the relevant foundation settlements from the dataset. With this, precise insights for building-induced #subsidence for decision-making in engineering, asset management, and urban planning. Want to read the two original scientific journal articles on using InSAR for assessing building-induced subsidence risk around skyscrapers? ===> DM us 🛰️ Up next: Step 5 – InSAR for the very long term. #StructuralHealth #GeotechnicalRisk #SkyGeo

🔍 Step 3: Data Selection & Filtering – Validating InSAR with Traditional ground-based data  InSAR provides precise, wide-area, high-frequency measurements over the very long term, while traditional geodetic methods—like #leveling, #GNSS, and Total Stations—offer trusted precision at deterministic specific points.  So how do we ensure consistency between them? At De Coopvaert, we validated InSAR data with leveling measurements taken from March 2005 - April 2006, from monuments at the building’s ground level.  The results? A strong correlation confirmed InSAR’s reliability in tracking settlement trends even when rapid initial subsidence is at play. Key Insights from the Verification and Validation Process: ✅ Ground-based data: There is no inherent accuracy (as opposed to precision) in InSAR, so these data points really are needed for verification ... typically these are few points sample over short time spans. ✅ Geolocation Precision: The standard deviation in (x,y,z) positioning of stable, persistent scatterers can be up to 3m. ✅ Height Filtering: Points below 3m elevation were excluded to ensure that only building settlement was measured—not unrelated ground movement. ✅ Multi-Sensor Comparison: Different SAR sensors detect different unique scatterers, with varying stability and noise levels in deformation analysis. requiring careful verification with ground-based data where possible (also see STEP 5) ✅ Temporal Stability: InSAR captures long-term trends, but initial rapid settlements during construction require ground-based monitoring for full accuracy. By combining InSAR with trusted traditional methods, SkyGeo ensures data reliability and accuracy, helping cities and engineers make informed risk decisions on building-induced subsidence. 🚀 want to read the two original scientific journal articles on using InSAR for assessing buildsing-induced subsidence risk? ===> DM us #InSAR #GeotechnicalEngineering #DataValidation #InfrastructureMonitoring #SkyGeo