Investigating Sea Level Rise and Land Subsidence in the Coastal Cities of the New York Metropolitan Area: An InSAR Analysis Approach
Publication: World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the contributions of coastal land subsidence to relative sea level rise (RSLR) in urban coastal regions of New York and New Jersey, addressing a gap in current research that often overlooks spatial variations in land motion. Utilizing Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), we mapped localized subsidence rates by processing over 150 Sentinel-1 images via the SBAS-InSAR technique. Furthermore, the study examines the spatial variations of vertical land motion (VLM), commonly known as land subsidence. The findings are validated with data collected from two Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations, one positioned in Brooklyn, New York, and another located in Sandy Hook Beach, New Jersey. This comparison reveals a significant difference in subsidence rates: Brooklyn shows a rate of 1.2 mm per year, while Sandy Hook Beach experiences a more substantial subsidence rate of 2.7 mm per year. These variations underscore the need for localized investigations when addressing the complex interplay between VLM and RSLR. A key aspect of our study is differentiating the contributions of VLM from sea-level rise trends. By subtracting the global mean sea-level rise rate of 3 mm per year from the local sea-level rise rate of 6 mm per year in Sandy Hook, we estimate the impact of land subsidence on RSLR. This analysis indicates that the coastal subsidence rate is approximately 3 mm per year, closely aligning with the observed local sea-level rise in Sandy Hook Beach, New Jersey. Our findings offer crucial insights into the role of subsidence in exacerbating coastal flood hazards, providing valuable information for coastal management and mitigation strategies.
Get full access to this chapter
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Bekaert, D., Hamlington, B. D., Buzzanga, B., and Jones, C. E. (2017). Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar survey of subsidence in Hampton Roads, Virginia (USA). Scientific Reports, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15309-5.
Cauller, S. J., and Carleton, G. B. (2006). Hydrogeology and simulated effects of ground-water withdrawals, kirkwood-cohansey aquifer system, upper Maurice River Basin area, New Jersey. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20055258.
Chen, N., Yang, J., and Chen, D. (2014). Hurricane sandy storm surges observed by hy‐2a satellite altimetry and tide gauges. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 119(7), 4542–4548. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013jc009782.
Chen, Y., Yu, S., Qing, T., Liu, G., Wang, L., and Wang, F. (2021). Accuracy verification and correction of D-InAR and SBAS-InAR in monitoring mining surface subsidence. Remote Sensing, 13(21), 4365. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214365.
Chen, K., Liu, G., Xiang, W., Sun, T., Qian, K., Cai, J., and Xiao, C. (2022). Assimilation of SBAS-InAR-based vertical deformation into land surface model to improve the estimation of terrestrial water storage. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 15, 2826–2835. https://doi.org/10.1109/jstars.2022.3162228.
Cigna, F., Tapete, D., Garduño‐Monroy, V. H., Muñiz-Jáuregui, J. A., and Jiménez-Haro, A. (2019). Wide-area InSAR survey of surface deformation in urban areas and geothermal fields in the eastern trans-Mexican volcanic belt, Mexico. Remote Sensing, 11(20), 2341. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202341.
Cooper, M., Beevers, M., and Oppenheimer, M. (2008). The potential impacts of sea level rise on the coastal region of New Jersey, USA. Climatic Change, 90(4), 475–492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-008-9422-0.
Craft, C., Clough, J. S., Ehman, J., Joye, S. B., Park, R., Pennings, S., and Machmuller, M. B. (2008). Forecasting the effects of accelerated sea‐level rise on tidal marsh ecosystem services. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 7(2), 73–78. https://doi.org/10.1890/070219.
Cui, Z., Yang, J., and Li, Y. (2015). Land subsidence is caused by the interaction of high-rise buildings in soft soil areas. Natural Hazards, 79(2), 1199–1217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-1902-8.
Doyle, J. A., and Robbins, E. I. (1977). Angiosperm pollen zonation of the continental cretaceous of the Atlantic coastal plain and its application to deep wells in the Salisbury embayment. Palynology, 1(1), 41–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916122.1977.9989150.
Du, Q., Li, G., Zhou, Y., Chai, M., Qi, S., and Wu, G. (2021). Deformation monitoring in an alpine mining area in the Tianshan mountains based on sbas-insar technology. Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, 2021, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/9988017.
Du, Y., Feng, G., Liu, L., Fu, H., Peng, X., and Wen, D. (2020). Understanding land subsidence along the coastal areas of Guangdong, China, by analyzing multi-track InSAR data. Remote Sensing, 12(2), 299. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12020299.
Garner, A., Mann, M., Emanuel, K., Kopp, R., Lin, N., Alley, R., and Pollard, D. (2017). Impact of climate change on New York City’s coastal flood hazard: increasing flood heights from the preindustrial to 2300 CE. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(45), 11861–11866. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1703568114.
Gerhanae, N. Y., and Kamiludin, U. (2016). Coastal characteristics of papela and adjacent area, rote island, east nusa tenggara. Bulletin of the Marine Geology, 28(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.32693/bomg.28.1.2013.52.
Hrysiewicz, A., Wang, X., and Holohan, E. P. (2023). Ez-InSAR: an easy-to-use open-source toolbox for mapping ground surface deformation using satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar. https://doi.org/10.31223/x5ts96.
Hu, B., Chen, J., and Zhang, X. (2019). Monitoring the land subsidence area in a coastal urban area with InSAR and GNSS. Sensors, 19(14), 3181. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19143181.
Jumiawi, W., and El-Zaart, A. (2022). Improvement in the between-class variance based on lognormal distribution for accurate image segmentation. Entropy, 24(9), 1204. https://doi.org/10.3390/e24091204.
Karamouz, M., Mahmoodzadeh, D., and Essink, G. O. (2020). A risk-based groundwater modeling framework in coastal aquifers: a case study on Long Island, New York, USA. Hydrogeology Journal, 28(7), 2519–2541. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-020-02197-9%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC%E2%80%AC.
Karegar, M., Dixon, T., and Engelhart, S. (2016). Subsidence along the Atlantic coast of North America: insights from GPS and late Holocene relative sea level data. Geophysical Research Letters, 43(7), 3126–3133. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016gl068015.
Kirwan, M. L., and Guntenspergen, G. R. (2010). Influence of tidal range on the stability of coastal marshland. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 115(F2). https://doi.org/10.1029/2009jf001400.
Lan, W., Kuo, C., Kao, H., Li, L., Shum, C., Tseng, K., and Chang, J. (2017). Impact of geophysical and datum corrections on absolute sea-level trends from tide gauges around Taiwan, 1993–2015. Water, 9(7), 480. https://doi.org/10.3390/w9070480.
Lin, G., Gong, H., Ke, Y., Zhu, L., Li, X., Lyu, M., and Zhang, K. (2021). Mechanism of land subsidence mutation in Beijing plain under the background of urban expansion. Remote Sensing, 13(16), 3086. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163086.
Lin, G., Gong, H., Li, J., Zhu, L., Aimin, X., Liao, L., and Zhou, J. (2020). Understanding uneven land subsidence in Beijing, China, using a novel combination of geophysical prospecting and InSAR. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(16). https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl088676.
Lu, Y., Ke, C., Jiang, H., and Chen, D. (2019). Monitoring urban land surface deformation (2004–2010) from InSAR, groundwater and leveling data: a case study of Changzhou city, china. Journal of Earth System Science, 128(6). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-019-1173-y.
Mariotti, G., and Fagherazzi, S. (2010). A numerical model for the coupled long‐term evolution of salt marshes and tidal flats. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 115(F1). https://doi.org/10.1029/2009jf001326.
Merrifield, M., Merrifield, S., and Mitchum, G. (2009). An anomalous recent acceleration of global sea level rise. Journal of Climate, 22(21), 5772–5781. https://doi.org/10.1175/2009jcli2985.1.
Miller, K., Kopp, R., Horton, B., Browning, J., and Kemp, A. (2013). A geological perspective on sea‐level rise and its impacts along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast. Earth S Future, 1(1), 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013ef000135.
Parsons, T., Wu, P., Wei, M., and Dhondt, S. (2023). The weight of New York City: possible contributions to subsidence from anthropogenic sources. Earth’s Future, 11(5). https://doi.org/10.1029/2022ef003465.
Patton, J. R., Williams, T. D., Anderson, J. L., Hemphill‐Haley, M., Burgette, R. J., Weldon, R. J., and Leroy, T. (2023). 20th to 21st century relative sea and land level changes in northern California: tectonic land level changes and their contribution to sea-level rise, Humboldt region, northern California. Tektonika, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.55575/tektonika2023.1.1.6.
Qu, T., Liu, F., Shan, W., Li, Z., Shan, M., and Dai, K. (2019). Deformation monitoring of high-latitude permafrost region of northeastern China with time series InSAR technique. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XLII-2/W13, 1777–1780. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-xlii-2-w13-1777-2019.
Salmun, H., Molod, A., Wisniewska, K., and Buonaiuto, F. (2011). Statistical prediction of the storm surge associated with cool-weather storms at the battery, New York. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 50(2), 273–282. https://doi.org/10.1175/2010jamc2459.1.
Solari, L., Ciampalini, A., Raspini, F., Bianchini, S., and Moretti, S. (2016). PS-InSAR analysis in the Pisa urban area (Italy): a case study of subsidence related to stratigraphical factors and urbanization. Remote Sensing, 8(2), 120. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8020120.
Takagi, H., Thao, N., and Anh, L. (2016). Sea-level rise and land subsidence: impacts on flood projections for the Mekong Delta’s largest city. Sustainability, 8(9), 959. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090959.
Troia, G., Stamps, D., Lotspeich, R., Duda, J., McCoy, K., Moore, W., and Winn, N. (2022). GPS data from 2019 and 2020 campaigns in the Chesapeake Bay region towards quantifying vertical land motions. Scientific Data, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01864-8.
Walker, R. L., Reilly, P. A., and Watson, K. M. (2008). Hydrogeologic framework in three drainage basins in the New Jersey Pinelands, 2004-06. Scientific Investigations Report. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20085061.
Wang, Z., Liu, Y., Zhang, Y., Wang, B., and Zhang, G. (2022). Spatially varying relationships between land subsidence and urbanization: a case study in Wuhan, China. Remote Sensing, 14(2), 291. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14020291.
Wernette, P., Houser, C., Weymer, B. A., Everett, M. E., Bishop, M. P., and Reece, R. (2018). Long-range dependence in coastal framework geology: asymmetries and implications for barrier island resiliency. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-2018-41.
Zhou, L., Guo, J., Hu, J., Li, J., Xu, Y., Pan, Y., and Miao, S. (2017). Wuhan surface subsidence analysis in 2015–2016 based on sentinel-1a data by SBAS-InAR. Remote Sensing, 9(10), 982. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9100982.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
History
Published online: May 16, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Beaches
- Bodies of water (by type)
- Coastal engineering
- Coastal management
- Coasts, oceans, ports, and waterways engineering
- Continuum mechanics
- Dynamics (solid mechanics)
- Engineering mechanics
- Geohazards
- Geomatics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Global navigation satellite systems
- Infrastructure
- Land subsidence
- Motion (dynamics)
- Sea level
- Seas and oceans
- Shores
- Solid mechanics
- Surveying methods
- Urban and regional development
- Urban areas
- Water and water resources
- Water management
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.