Interferometric Satellite Data For The Structural Health Monitoring Of Infrastructures

Over the past few years, some catastrophic events have highlighted the vulnerability of Italian infrastructures. Bridges and viaducts are increasingly fragile both due to exceptional events (earthquakes, floods, etc.) but also due to ageing. In this context, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems can effectively contribute to the assessment of the health state of structures because they allow the detection of structural anomalies that may indicate possible damage. However, there are very few structures equipped with permanent monitoring systems. Although their advantages are well known, the high costs have not yet allowed their widespread use. For these reasons, it is important to experiment with new technologies and methodologies in order to study and observe the structural behavior of infrastructures and structures. Since installing permanent monitoring systems in situ is very expensive, new easily accessible and low-cost data sources are being investigated. Among these, satellite remote sensing data have taken on particular relevance. They are often applied to study environmental phenomena (i.e. fires, drought, melting glaciers, etc…) and their application in SHM fields is quite recent. There are different types of satellite data that can be used to study different aspects, e.g. multispectral data, hyperspectral data, and interferometric data, and they can help civil engineering to better understand the health conditions in which the structures are. In this paper, interferometric (InSAR) data of European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) acquired by Sentinel-1 are used in order to observe and analyze the presence of displacements before tragic events in case of bridges and viaducts.