Ground movements, caused by geogenic and anthropogenic factors, can damage transportation infrastructure and, in the worst-case scenario, endanger people. Even minor ground movements can significantly disrupt traffic. Monitoring of such movements in the transportation sector is currently carried out primarily through terrestrial measurement techniques in selected areas, which is both time-consuming and costly.

In contrast, Earth observation using satellite-based SAR interferometry (InSAR) enables the detection of ground movements with an accuracy of just a few millimeters per year across entire nations or continents. This has been made possible by the Copernicus Programme and the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite mission Sentinel-1 of the European Space Agency (ESA).

This project aims to develop and establish an InSAR-based ground movement service for the entire German transportation sector, thereby addressing the demand for ground movement data in this field. The service’s functionalities are divided into two levels:

1. A basic function, building on the existing products of the Ground Motion Service Germany (BBD) by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), with enhanced features tailored to transportation infrastructure (e.g., availability of data points and analysis of traffic-relevant processes).
2. Extended functions, incorporating specialized analysis steps for detailed and case-specific monitoring applications of transportation infrastructure.