Monitoring ground surface displacement in the three gorges area, dangxiong-lasha and jiangsu province area

A variety of small-scale projects have been running during the DRAGON-2 project term involving collaborations between 6 different research groups. There has been continuing interest in geohazards throughout the Three Gorges region and this has stimulated much research focused on the use of frequently acquired SAR images from a variety of sensors. Their analysis has been able to identify the unstable and currently actively deforming slopes and this has been backed up by fieldwork. Different processing strategies, involving pixel correlation/pixeloffset techniques have been applied to this region given the characteristically low interferometric phase coherence due to very dense vegetation and heavy rainfall. Alongside this focus, a number of algorithms have been developed and validated in both similar and different terrain types throughout China. Finally, comparisons of various DEM products have been made using GPS and spaceborne lidar (ICESat) over steep sided slopes. Given the relocation of communities throughout the Three Gorges region, we hope that this work can be used to help target the vulnerable areas for future land-use planning.