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Linking land subsidence over the Yellow River delta, China, to hydrocarbon exploitation using multi-temporal InSAR

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Abstract

The Yellow River delta, the second largest oil and gas base of China, has been subsiding due to the combination effects of human and natural factors. Increasing anthropogenic activities, like hydrocarbon exploitation, accelerate the subsidence, gradually threatening the stability of infrastructures and causing the inhabitants more vulnerable to natural hazards. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) techniques can measure ground movements in high resolution. The purpose of this study is to map the spatial and temporal variations in surface deformation over the Yellow River delta using a Small Baseline Subset InSAR technique and to assess the role of hydrocarbon exploitation in subsidence. The Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers/Multi-Temporal InSAR (StaMPS/MTI) package is employed to process ENVISAT ASAR images collected from 2007 to 2010. InSAR-derived surface deformation measurements are then compared to geological and petroleum geologic data, oil field data and hydrocarbon reservoir inversion information to address the causes of the observed subsidence. Spirit leveling data and standard deviation maps are used to verify the InSAR results and measurement accuracy. Consistent results of the two descending tracks indicate subsidence up to 40 mm/yr over oil field. The time-series deformation manifests that subsidence area and peak broaden over time and subsidence rate are approximately constant in Shikou oil field, while the rate decreases in Dongying oil field since 2009. Moreover, our results indicate that the land subsidence pattern is concentrated in hydrocarbon exploration field and has a good consistency with faults distributions. In addition, a multiple finite prolate ellipsoid sources model is implemented to model the InSAR-derived deformation in Shikou oil field. The model manifests that land subsidence and hydrocarbon exploitation can be quantitatively linked to each other. The intimate connection of surface deformation with reservoir change suggests that land subsidence over oil field in the Yellow River delta is primarily caused by hydrocarbon exploitation. The results provide new insights into the land subsidence mechanism in the Yellow River delta.

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Acknowledgments

This study used ENVISAT SAR imagery acquired under a Category 1 research project C1F.19709 from the European Space Agency. We also thank JPL for ROI_PAC, DEOS for DORIS and Andy Hooper for StaMPS. This work is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 41276082, 41306190 and the Knowledge Innovative Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. KZCX2-EW-207. We are grateful to Dr. Peng Liu, Feifei Qu, Lingyun Ji and He Sun and Prof. Hua Liu for helpful discussions.

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  1. The Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 7 Nanhai Rd., Qingdao, 266071, Shandong, China

    Yilin Liu, Haijun Huang, Yanxia Liu & Haibo Bi

  2. Laboratory for Marine Geology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, No. 1 Wenhai Rd, Qingdao, 266200, China

    Haibo Bi

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  1. Yilin Liu
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Correspondence to Yilin Liu.

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Liu, Y., Huang, H., Liu, Y. et al. Linking land subsidence over the Yellow River delta, China, to hydrocarbon exploitation using multi-temporal InSAR. Nat Hazards 84, 271–291 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2427-5

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