"Spaceborne Interferometry for Bridge Monitoring"

Abstract:

Bridges are essential components of civil infrastructure, and ensuring their structural integrity is crucial for public safety and service continuity. Recent advancements in Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) have significantly enhanced our ability to remotely monitor structural behavior, offering a valuable complement to traditional inspection and sensor-based methods. While InSAR has been successfully applied in geohazard monitoring, its adaptation for civil structures - with smaller footprints and complex geometries - requires addressing specific technical challenges and aligning with engineering practices.

This talk explores the use of spaceborne InSAR for structural monitoring of bridges, focusing on data accessibility, resolution limits, uncertainty quantification and damage identification. In addition to routine monitoring, InSAR holds substantial promise for post-event forensic analysis. It can help engineers investigate the underlying causes of bridge failures by revealing patterns of progressive displacement or subsidence leading to collapse - critical information that traditional inspection and monitoring methods often miss.