Damage Proxy Map over Collapsed Structure in Ansan Using COSMO-SkyMed Data

An area under construction for a living facility collapsed around 12:48 KST on 13 January 2021 in Sa-dong, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do. There were no casualties due to the rapid evacuation measure, but part of the temporary retaining facility collapsed, and several cracks occurred in the adjacent road on the south side. This study used the potential of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for surface property changes that lies in backscattering characteristic to map the collapsed structure. The interferometric SAR technique can make a direct measurement of the decorrelation among different acquisition dates by integrating both amplitude and phase information. The damage proxy map (DPM) technique has been employed using four high-resolution Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation (COSMO-SkyMed) data spanning from 2020 to 2021 during ascending observation to analyze the collapse of the construction. DPM relies on the difference of pre- and co-event interferometric coherences to depict anomalous changes that indicate collapsed structure in the study area. The DPMs were displayed in a color scale that indicates an increasingly more significant ground surface change in the area covered by the pixels, depicting the collapsed structure. Therefore, the DPM technique with SAR data can be used for damage assessment with accurate and comprehensive detection after an event. In addition, we classify the amplitude information using support vector machine (SVM) and maximum likelihood classification algorithms. An investigation committee was formed to determine the cause of the collapse of the retaining wall and to suggest technical and institutional measures and alternatives to prevent similar incidents from reoccurring. The report from the committee revealed that the incident was caused by a combination of factors that were not carried out properly.