In the “Concretely” podcast, Alois Vorwagner, structural dynamics expert at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, explains how interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technology is used to monitor infrastructure. Radar satellites such as Sentinel-1 make it possible to visualize movements of bridges, roads, and railway lines over long periods of time with millimeter precision. The evaluation of repeated radar images produces precise time series in which stable backscatter points on structures are analyzed.
AIT is developing special methods for this purpose, such as compensating for temperature effects, which significantly increase the accuracy of deformation determination. InSAR is already being used in pilot projects by ÖBB and ASFINAG, for example on viaducts, motorway sections, and urban tunnel areas. The technology helps infrastructure operators to detect subsidence, trends, and small structural changes at an early stage and to prioritize measures in a targeted manner.
Future satellite missions will offer higher resolutions and denser repetition rates, allowing InSAR to be integrated even better into monitoring and asset management systems.
To the podcast (in German): https://concrete-ly.com/konnen-satelliten-bruckeneinsturze-vorhersagen/