Spatiotemporal-grained quantitative assessment of construction-induced deformation along the MTR in Hong Kong using MT-InSAR and iterative STL-based subsidence ratio analysis

Multi-temporal synthetic aperture radar interferometry (MT-InSAR) offers unique advantages in monitoring ground deformation and structural stability along the metro lines. However, a vast number of complex deformation points, millions and even more, can be derived from InSAR making it challenging to identify the deformation hotspot in time series automatically. This paper proposes a novel method for quantitatively assessing the MT-InSAR-derived deformation results. We first introduce an iterative seasonal trend decomposition using loess (STL) method to confirm the optimal period for separating seasonal components from the displacement time series. Then, an absolute differences detector with rolling windows is proposed to quantify the subsidence ratio within the time series and allow deformation hotspots to be more visible. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, 468 scenes of Sentinel-1A ascending images from Jun. 2015 to Nov. 2023 over the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR) are adopted. The results indicate that 99.2% of areas are relatively stable with the displacement velocity ranging from −2 mm/year to 2 mm/year, and 84% of the study area remained a subsidence ratio below 0.3, except for localized hotspots that exhibited either short or long-term subsidence trends. The findings of this study indicate that multiple deformation hotspots were identified at the intersections of several metro lines in the Kowloon Peninsula and along the Island line. In addition to the displacement velocity from the conventional MT-InSAR, the overall and annual subsidence ratios have been demonstrated to be useful indicators for quantitative assessment of the construction-induced deformation.