Algorithms for large-scale quasi-real time monitoring of architectural and cultural heritage based on MT-DInSAR Data

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is a field of increasing interest and worthy of new approaches and innovative applications. Italian territory is rich of architectural and cultural heritage that needs to be managed, monitored and conserved. This work presents a possible framework for the monitoring of such heritage that is suitable for large scale analyses and permits a fast and quick assessment, useful to the stakeholders responsible for its management. The proposed algorithms are based on an appealing technique, that gained popularity during the last years in the field of SHM, represented by the advanced multi-temporal differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry. Although the exploitation of these technique for the SHM of architectural and cultural heritage is still an open issue, different applications available in literature show promising potentialities. The algorithms and procedures proposed in this work are applied to a case study area located in the historic centre of Rome (Italy) to show the potentialities of the method. To this aim, COSMO-SkyMed ascending and descending datasets are processed applying the small baseline method obtaining deformation time series and mean velocity maps of the permanent scatterers located in the investigated area, for both geometry acquisitions. The information from these datasets are then elaborated and integrated with information from other data sources in order to provide a first estimation of potentially critical elements within the analyzed stock at urban level.