An Application of the DInSAR Technique for the Structural Monitoring of the Vittorino da Feltre School Building in Rome

The management process and safety evaluation of existing buildings, which have often overcome their service life, can be properly supported by noninvasive structural monitoring techniques, among which multi-temporal Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (MT-DInSAR) techniques can be included. The paper follows previous works of some of the authors on this topic, giving an insight on the proper use, processing and interpretation of satellite radar interferometry data for the structural analysis, through an application to the Vittorino da Feltre school building located in the city centre of Rome (Italy), within the framework of a retrofitting project. After performing a correct positioning of the reflecting targets on the 3D geometry of the structure under investigation, displacement time series, mean deformation velocity values and continuous maps of the vertical and East-West velocity components are presented, by exploiting the COSMO-SkyMed SAR data collected during the 2011-2019 time interval. Finally, a comparison of the obtained results with the on-site detected cracking pattern can be useful to better understand the ongoing phenomena, for a proper damage assessment.

Automated summary

The paper presents an application of multi-temporal Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (MT-DInSAR) techniques in the structural analysis of the Vittorino da Feltre school building in Rome. By correctly positioning the reflecting targets on the 3D geometry of the structure, displacement time series, mean deformation velocity values, and continuous maps of the vertical and East-West velocity components are obtained using COSMO-SkyMed SAR data collected from 2011 to 2019. Comparing the results with the on-site detected cracking pattern can provide a better understanding of the ongoing phenomena for a proper damage assessment.