Insight into the May 2015 inflation event at Kīlauea volcano, Hawai'i: A look into the subsurface with geodetic measurement tools

We use ground and space geodetic data to study surface deformation and gravity change at Kīlauea volcano from January to September 2015. This period includes an episode of heightened activity in May 2015, which we refer to as ’the May 2015 event’. The data set consists of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), tilt, visual and seismic time...

SAR-based flood mapping in urban environments

Flooding is a very costly natural disaster especially when it hits urban areas. Yet synthetic aperture radar (SAR) based flood mapping barely works in urban areas. Buildings and man made objects have similar backscatter signatures as still standing water. This makes them hard to distinguish from one another. Structures can block the visibility...

The influence of land subsidence on pluvial flooding in Rotterdam: Supplementing conducted stress test pluvial flooding with land subsidence assessment

In the Netherlands, the Delta Programme aspires to adjust spatial planning climate-proof and water-resilient, in order to be prepared for extreme weather in 2050. To achieve this ambition, municipalities, provinces, regional water authorities and central governments conduct stress tests to map out the vulnerabilities in their areas of authority...

The detection of deformation on vegetated dikes using InSAR

Almost four million people in the Netherlands who live below sea level are protected by 17000 km of dikes against the water. Since deformation can be an indicator of a developing failure mechanism, information about this parameter can help authorities to detect weak spots in the dutch water defense structures. <br/>In this research, Radar...

Use of InSAR data for building deformation monitoring

This thesis explores the use of InSAR data for building monitoring. The area of main interest is the city centre of Amsterdam, where quay wall replacements are necessary on a large scale. In Amsterdam, the foundation quality needs to be checked before construction activities nearby are performed, such as a quay wall replacement. Levelling...

Tightly coupled GNSS/map-based monocular vision in vehicle positioning

Knowing 'where I am' is always essential and a prior to answer for a moving vehicle. Among numerous onboard sensors, a GNSS receiver for single-frequency Precise Point Positioning and camera are competitive due to the fairly lower cost and the potential to provide a lot of useful information.<br/><br/>However, due to the degraded GNSS solution...

Detection of multi-transitional abrupt changes in SAR time series

Repeat-pass acquisitions with coherent Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems, preserving both phase and amplitude, are more readily available than ever (Bruzzone, 2016). Phase measurements from SAR systems have seen widespread use in the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture (InSAR) technique to measure deformations and elevations since the late...

Joint Retrieval of Wind- and Total Surface Current Vectors from TanDEM-X Bidirectional Along-Track Interferometric Data

Direct measurement of ocean surface velocity from space with a Synthetic Aperture Radar has shown to be a promising method to observe ocean surface currents. In this thesis report a method for Total Surface Current Vector (TSCV) retrieval using an experimental Bidirectional (BiDi) Along-Track Interferometric (ATI) acquisition mode with TanDEM-X...

Antarctic surface melting dynamics using radar scatterometer data

Recent studies have shown that processes like the thinning of the ice shelves, the acceleration of the outlet glaciers and the collapses of the ice shelves are connected to surface melting. Several ice shelves at the Antarctic Peninsula, a region that has experienced an atmospheric warming much larger than the global average, have retreated and...

GNSS performance monitoring: SiS availability parameter definition and evaluation

Nowadays, many people and organizations depend on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS. Monitoring of GNSS is important to ensure the quality of GNSS measurements and products. The availability of the...

A statistical analysis on the system performance of a Bluetooth Low Energy indoor positioning system in a 3D environment

Since GPS tends to fail for indoor positioning purposes, alternative methods like indoor positioning systems (IPS) based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) are developing rapidly. Generally, IPS are deployed in environments covered with obstacles such as furniture, (partition-) walls, people and electronics influencing the signal propagation. The...