Pascal Castellazzi

Land subsidence in major cities of Central Mexico: Interpreting InSAR-derived land subsidence mapping with hydrogeological data.

Abstract Significant structural damages to urban infrastructures caused by compaction of over-exploited aquifers are an important problem in Central Mexico. While the case of Mexico City has been well-documented, insight into land subsidence problems in other cities of Central Mexico is still limited. Among the cities concerned, we present and discuss the cases of five of them, located within the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB): Toluca, Celaya, Aguascalientes, Morelia, and Queretaro. Applying the SBAS-InSAR method to C-Band RADARSAT-2 data, five high resolution ground motion time-series were produced to monitor the spatio-temporal variations of displacements and fracturing from 2012 to 2014. The study presents recent changes of land subsidence rates along with concordant geological and water data. It aims to provide suggestions to mitigate future damages to infrastructure and to assist in groundwater resources management. Aguascalientes, Celaya, Morelia and Queretaro (respectively in order of decreasing subsidence rates) are typical cases of fault-limited land subsidence of Central Mexico. It occurs as a result of groundwater over-exploitation in lacustrine and alluvial deposits covering highly variable bedrock topography, typical of horst-graben geological settings. Aguascalientes and Toluca show high rates of land subsidence (up to 10xa0cm/yr), while Celaya and Morelia show lower rates (from 2 to 5xa0cm/yr). Comparing these results with previous studies, it is inferred that the spatial patterns of land subsidence have changed in the city of Toluca. This change appears to be mainly controlled by the spatial heterogeneity of compressible sediments since no noticeable change occurred in groundwater extraction and related drawdown rates. While land subsidence of up to 8xa0cm/yr has been reported in the Queretaro Valley before 2011, rates inferior to 1xa0cm/yr are measured in 2013–2014. The subsidence has been almost entirely mitigated by major changes in the water management practices of the city, i.e., a 122xa0km long pipeline bringing surface water from an adjacent state allowed to cease pumping in half of the wells.

Assessing Groundwater Depletion and Dynamics Using GRACE and InSAR: Potential and Limitations

In the last decade, remote sensing of the temporal variation of ground level and gravity has improved our understanding of groundwater dynamics and storage. Mass changes are measured by GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellites, whereas ground deformation is measured by processing synthetic aperture radar satellites data using the InSAR (Interferometry of Synthetic Aperture Radar) techniques. Both methods are complementary and offer different sensitivities to aquifer system processes. GRACE is sensitive to mass changes over large spatial scales (more than 100,000u2009km2 ). As such, it fails in providing groundwater storage change estimates at local or regional scales relevant to most aquifer systems, and at which most groundwater management schemes are applied. However, InSAR measures ground displacement due to aquifer response to fluid-pressure changes. InSAR applications to groundwater depletion assessments are limited to aquifer systems susceptible to measurable deformation. Furthermore, the inversion of InSAR-derived displacement maps into volume of depleted groundwater storage (both reversible and largely irreversible) is confounded by vertical and horizontal variability of sediment compressibility.u2009During the last decade, both techniques have shown increasing interest in the scientific community to complement available in situ observations where they are insufficient. In this review, we present the theoretical and conceptual bases of each method, and present idealized scenarios to highlight the potential benefits and challenges of combining these techniques to remotely assess groundwater storage changes and other aspects of the dynamics of aquifer systems.

Groundwater depletion in Central Mexico: Use of GRACE and InSAR to support water resources management

Groundwater deficits occur in several areas of Central Mexico, where water resource assessment is limited by the availability and reliability of field data. In this context, GRACE and InSAR are used to remotely assess groundwater storage loss in one of Mexicos most important watersheds in terms of size and economic activity: the Lerma-Santiago-Pacifico (LSP). In situ data and Land Surface Models are used to subtract soil moisture and surface water storage changes from the total water storage change measured by GRACE satellites. As a result, groundwater mass change time-series are obtained for a 12 years period. ALOS-PALSAR images acquired from 2007 to 2011 were processed using the SBAS-InSAR algorithm to reveal areas subject to ground motion related to groundwater over-exploitation. In the perspective of providing guidance for groundwater management, GRACE and InSAR observations are compared with official water budgets and field observations. InSAR-derived subsidence mapping generally agrees well with official water budgets, and shows that deficits occur mainly in cities and irrigated agricultural areas. GRACE does not entirely detect the significant groundwater losses largely reported by official water budgets, literature and InSAR observations. The difference is interpreted as returns of wastewater to the groundwater flow systems, which limits the watershed scale groundwater depletion but suggests major impacts on groundwater quality. This phenomenon is enhanced by ground fracturing as noticed in the field. Studying the fate of the extracted groundwater is essential when comparing GRACE data with higher resolution observations, and particularly in the perspective of further InSAR/GRACE combination in hydrogeology.

InSAR to support sustainable urbanization over compacting aquifers: The case of Toluca Valley, Mexico.

Abstract This paper illustrates how InSAR alone can be used to delineate potential ground fractures related to aquifer system compaction. An InSAR-derived ground fracturing map of the Toluca Valley, Mexico, is produced and validated through a field campaign. The results are of great interest to support sustainable urbanization and show that InSAR processing of open-access Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the Sentinel-1 satellites can lead to reliable and cost-effective products directly usable by cities to help decision-making. The Toluca Valley Aquifer (TVA) sustains the water needs of two million inhabitants living within the valley, a growing industry, an intensively irrigated agricultural area, and 38% of the water needs of the megalopolis of Mexico City, located 40xa0km east of the valley. Ensuring water sustainability, infrastructure integrity, along with supporting the important economic and demographic growth of the region, is a major challenge for water managers and urban developers. This paper presents a long-term analysis of ground fracturing by interpreting 13 years of InSAR-derived ground displacement measurements. Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) and Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) techniques are applied over three SAR datasets totalling 93 acquisitions from Envisat, Radarsat-2, and Sentinel-1A satellites and covering the period from 2003 to 2016. From 2003 to 2016, groundwater level declines of up to 1.6xa0m/yr, land subsidence up to 77xa0mm/yr, and major infrastructure damages are observed. Groundwater level data show highly variable seasonal responses according to their connectivity to recharge areas. However, the trend of groundwater levels consistently range from −0.5 to −1.5xa0m/yr regardless of the well location and depth. By analysing the horizontal gradients of vertical land subsidence, we provide a potential ground fracture map to assist in future urban development planning in the Toluca Valley.

Groundwater deficit and land subsidence in central mexico monitored by grace and RADARSAT-2

In the context of a lack of reliable data in assessing groundwater overexploitation, space borne sensors bring useful information. While space-borne SAR and gravimetric data are now used to study groundwater, their interoperability is still poorly studied. In this paper, we apply two cutting-edge techniques for the deficit assessment of one of Mexicos most important watersheds. Space-borne gravimetry is used to extract total and groundwater storage variations from 2003 to 2013 meanwhile InSAR techniques allow the detection of groundwater deficit areas in 2012 and 2013. GRACE reveals the large-scale combined effect of local unconfined aquifer overexploitation revealed by InSAR. Results show a non-anthropogenic water deficit within the northern half of the basin. Important local decreases in groundwater storage are observed by InSAR within several cities of the southern part of the basin, but groundwater storage loss is partially compensated by surface water storage increase.