Land Deformation at the Thessaloniki - Giannitsa Plain (Greece) Deduced from 20- years Radar Observations using Persistent Scatterers Techniques

We present the detected deformation and interpret the results in the light of ground-truth hydrological data, for the Thessaloniki-Giannitsa plain, the largest deltaic plain in Greece, encircled by Mounts Vermio, Paiko and Pieria. The contemporary morphology was gradually developed from the tectonic variations of the upper Pleistocene. The area has been subjected to many changes due to both natural causes and to human intervention. ERS-1, 2 and Envisat data provided from the European Space Agency were analysed to produce a time-series analysis based on Persistent Scatterer techniques. The mass processing of the 81 satellite images led to the creation of more than 250 Interferograms. The broader area of interest consists primarily of agricultural lands, leading to limited Interferometric coherence, and therefore careful Interferogram filtering and phase unwrapping of the input stack was crucial for reliable velocity generation. Our results show a strong deformation signal in regions of significant lifelines, as the railway and road network. Moreover, the satellite imagery revealed two significantly deforming sites: Kalochori and Sindos. The broader Kalochori region, the locus of the industrial activity of the city of Thessaloniki, is located below sea level. Both sites are suffering from land subsidence for more than 50 years, with several marine invasions reported in the past. Interestingly enough the two datasets -that represent two decades- show a reversed deformation pattern: The period in-between 1993 to 2000 is characterized by subsidence up to 34 mm/y, whereas from 2002 to 2010 there is an uplifting trend (more than 20 mm/yr). This result is crosschecked with hydrogeological data; the interpretation depicts that at Kalochori and Sindos the human factor (i.e. over pumping) is the dominant driver of these surface displacements. Although this was an assumption of previous studies, here we present for the first time, systematic proof that the detected uplift of the second decade acts as a rebound of the ground-water level.