Remote Sensing of Environment 102 (2006) 176 – 185

www.elsevier.com/locate/rse

Subsidence of Kolkata (Calcutta) City, India during the 1990s as observed

from space by Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry
(D-InSAR) technique
R.S. Chatterjee a,⁎, Benedicte Fruneau b , J.P. Rudant b , P.S. Roy c , Pierre-Louis Frison b ,
R.C. Lakhera a , V.K. Dadhwal a , Ranajit Saha d
a
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), National Remote Sensing, Agency (NRSA), Dept. of Space, Dehradun, India
b
Institut Francilien des Géosciences (IFG), Université de Marne-la-Vallée (UMLV), Marne-la-Vallée, France
c
National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Dept. of Space, Hyderabad, India
d
West Bengal State Water Investigation Directorate, Kolkata (Calcutta), India
Received 28 August 2005; received in revised form 9 February 2006; accepted 10 February 2006

Abstract

In Kolkata City, India potential land subsidence, due to over-drafting of groundwater under confined condition, has been reported by a number
of previous workers and by the local media. The presence of a thick surface clay layer with an average thickness of more than 40 m over the
aquifer sand layer raises questions on the possibility and doubtfulness of land subsidence in Kolkata City. In this work, D-InSAR based study has
been undertaken to detect and measure land subsidence phenomenon in Kolkata City.
For detecting slow land subsidence phenomenon in Kolkata City occurring primarily due to piezometric fall consequent to groundwater over-
drafting, we have chosen the InSAR data pairs acquired during post-monsoon (t1)–pre-monsoon (t2) periods when the lowering of piezometric
head was the maximum and therefore land subsidence would be more prominent than that of pre-monsoon (t1)–pre-monsoon (t2) and post-
monsoon (t1)–post-monsoon (t2) periods of similar time intervals.
For detecting slow land subsidence phenomenon essentially from long temporal baseline data pairs (usually in years), temporal decorrelation
and atmospheric artefacts have been found to pose serious difficulties. Adaptive filtering of the noisy interferograms followed by summing of the
independent interferograms was performed in complex domain in order to suppress noise from the fringes and highlight the deformation fringes
over atmospheric artefacts respectively.
Results indicate that an area in Kolkata City surrounded by Machhua Bazar, Calcutta University and Raja Bazar Science College had been
undergoing subsidence during the observation period, i.e., 1992–1998 with an estimated rate of 5 to 6.5 mm/year.
© 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: D-InSAR; ERS; Land subsidence; Kolkata (Calcutta); Groundwater over-draft; ESA Category-1 project

1. Introduction
Among various aerial- and space-based techniques available
to-date, D-InSAR appears to be an efficient technique for
measuring spatially continuous land subsidence (Amelung et
al., 1999; Carnec et al., 1995; Crosetto et al., 2002; Fruneau &
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 135 2745516; fax: +91 135 2741987/
2748041.
E-mail addresses: rschatterjee@iirs.gov.in, rschatterjee@mailcity.com
(R.S. Chatterjee).
0034-4257/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.rse.2006.02.006
Sarti, 2000; Strozzi et al., 2001; Tesauro et al., 2000;). D-InSAR
is used for two broad purposes: (i) identification of land
subsidence phenomenon in an area, and (ii) quantitative
analysis and modeling of deformation phenomenon with
particular emphasis on precision of measurements. In the latter
case, D-InSAR technique should be accompanied by precise
GPS monitoring and/or ground-based levelling.
Kolkata is the second largest city in India after Mumbai and
perhaps the ninth largest in the world with a total urban population
of 13.217 million (Census of India, 2001) over an areal extent of
900 km2 (Kundu & Nag, 1996). It has been undergoing a
 R.S. Chatterjee et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 102 (2006) 176–185 177

tremendous growth during the last 315 years since its inception in
1690. Kolkata is located in eastern part of India in the state of West
Bengal on the bank of the Hooghly River (the mighty Ganges
River) as the chief commercial, financial, manufacturing and
cultural centre of eastern India. We have confined our study on the
city area which is falling under Kolkata Municipal Corporation
(KMC), covering an areal extent of 185 km2 (Fig. 1) and a
population of 4.58 million (Census of India, 2001).
In Kolkata City, India, potential land subsidence caused
primarily by over-drafting of groundwater has been reported by
a number of previous workers (Biswas & Saha, 1985; Sikdar et
al., 1996) and by the local media. In a confined aquifer

Fig. 1. Location of Kolkata (Calcutta) City, India (a and b). Landsat 5 TM near-infra-red (NIR: 0.76–0.9 μm) image of Kolkata City and surrounding areas of 1998
where the study area, i.e., core city area under Kolkata Metropolitan Corporation, is shown by the boundary line (c).
178 R.S. Chatterjee et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 102 (2006) 176–185
condition, as in the case of Kolkata City, the over-extraction of
groundwater causes lowering of piezometric pressure. Ground-
water contributes as support to the overlying confining layer
material. The resulting reduction in artesian pressure causes
tensional forces to develop in overlying confining layer
material. As a result, compaction of overlying confining layer
material occurs which prompts to land subsidence.
In this work, a D-InSAR based study has been attempted
primarily to detect the subsiding areas in Kolkata City during
the 1990s and estimate the average rate of subsidence, assuming
a linearly uniform deformation over the period of observation
(i.e., 1992–1998). For slowly subsiding areas, as in the present
case, temporal decorrelation and atmospheric artefacts appear as
major difficulties in the analysis of differential interferograms.
We have attempted adaptive filtering of the noisy interfero-
grams (Goldstein & Werner, 1998) to highlight the fringes from
temporal decorrelation noise in the interferograms. To identify
the deformation fringes from atmospheric artefacts, we have
followed the approach of enhancing the deformation fringes and
at the same time diluting the atmospheric fringes by summing
independent interferograms in complex domain.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Kolkata City: Physiographic and geologic setting
Physiographically, the area represents a typical deltaic flat
country with elevation ranging between 5.8 and 6.1 m above
MSL (Chaterji et al., 1964). Several low lying depressions in the
form of mashes or shallow lakes are seen in and around the area
which represent river scars of past drainage channels in the area.
Geologically, the area around Kolkata City forms a part of
Bengal Basin and is underlain by Quaternary sediments of
fluvio-deltaic origin consisting of a succession of clay, silt and
sand of varying texture from fine to coarse grain size.
Quaternary sediments overlie a vast thickness of Tertiary and
probably Mesozoic sediments in a subsiding trough (Chaterji et
al., 1964). A remarkable feature on lithological characteristics
of the area is the occurrence of a thick surface clay layer with an
average thickness of 40 m (which goes up to 60–70 m at
places). Below the clay layer, coarse clastic sediments
consisting of sand and occasionally gravel interspersed with
clay and silt occur down to a depth of about 300 m from the
surface. From the widespread continuity of the sediments and
presence of organic contents in the form of decayed wood, it is
believed that sedimentation took place mainly under back-
swamp environment. The presence of peat beds at different
depths in the succession up to a depth of 152 m with the upper
group being within 9 to 15 m supports backswamp environment
for sedimentation (Chaterji et al., 1964). The principal water
bearing horizons occur at depths between 60 and 180 m in
medium to coarse sand and pebble layers (Biswas & Saha,
1985). The overlying clay layers with wood stumps and peat
beds are highly compressible which can facilitate land
subsidence during over extraction of groundwater.
The average annual rainfall of this region is 140–150 cm.
Over eighty percent of the total annual rainfall occurs during the
monsoon period, during June, July and August. The recharge
area for the confined aquifer system underlying Kolkata City
(KMC area) is located to the north at a distance of 65–70 km.
Recharge of the aquifer system underlying KMC area starts in
the 1st week of August and continues till October.
2.2. Background of D-InSAR technique
The phase difference of a repeat-pass InSAR data pair (Δϕ)
separated by some spatial and temporal baselines can be
described as follows (Dammert et al., 1997; Massonnet and
Feigl, 1998; Mora et al., 2003; Rocca et al., 1997):
D/ ¼ y/flat: þ y/top: þ y/disp: þ y/atm: þ y/noise: Fn⁎2p
4pdB8 d r 4pdB8 d h 4pd yq
¼ þ þ þ y/atm:
kdqd tgh kdqd sinh k
þ y/noise: Fn⁎2p ð1Þ
Where, δϕflat., δϕtop., δϕdisp., δϕatm. and δϕnoise represent
phase difference resulted from spatial baseline of the data pair
assuming an ideally flat terrain, topographic unevenness of the
terrain, ground displacement parallel to radar line-of-sight,
atmospheric artefacts resulted from spatio-temporal variation in
the atmosphere and random noise resulted from radar
instrument and temporal decorrelation between two images of
the pair respectively. In the term, n ⁎ 2π, n is a whole number,
viz., 1, 2, 3, …including 0 and represents the number of phase
cycles in the wrapped phase difference (Δϕ). λ, θ, ρ, B⊥, r,
h and δρ are radar wavelength, look angle, slant range distance
of the master image, normal spatial baseline component of the
data pair, slant range variation of the data pair due to orbital
separation, topographic height of the given point and ground
displacement parallel to radar line-of-sight respectively.
δϕflat. is computed from the satellite configuration of the data
pair and removed from the interferometric phase difference
(Δϕ). In Kolkata City, India, the topography of the terrain is
mostly flat with a height variation of less than 1 m over the
study area. The average building height in Kolkata City varies
from 5 (for one- or two-storied houses) to 15 m (for five-storied
houses) excluding a few 10–20 storied high-rise buildings
scattered in the city centre and newly developed commercial
and residential clusters. In case of ERS data pairs, for an average
height variation of 10 m, there is a topographic phase
contribution of 1 / 10th, 1 / 20th and 1 / 50th fraction of a fringe
(2π radians) for 100, 50 and 20 m spatial baseline data pairs
respectively. Therefore, topographic phase removal for the
terrain and average building height is not necessary. However,
in an attempt to measure slow subsidence in Kolkata City,
temporal decorrelation between two images of the InSAR data
pairs and atmospheric artefacts has been found to pose serious
difficulties.
In this work, D-InSAR data processing was carried out using
DIAPASON InSAR processing tool developed by the French
Space Agency (CNES). Adaptive filtering of the noisy
interferograms was carried out by the technique of Goldstein
and Werner (1998) to highlight the fringes from temporal de-
correlation noise. Finally, summing of the interferograms has
 R.S. Chatterjee et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 102 (2006) 176–185
been accomplished in complex domain by IDL (Interactive Data
Language) software of Research Systems Inc., USA to highlight
the deformation fringes over atmospheric artefacts. In this
procedure, two individual interferograms in byte (unsigned
integer) format are initially converted to complex format and
multiplied to obtain the product interferogram. The phase of the
product interferogram is converted back to unsigned integer
(byte) format which actually represents the sum of the
interferometric phases of the two individual interferograms.
In a D-InSAR interferogram, a complete phase cycle or
fringe (i.e., 2π radian phase difference) represents radar line-of-
sight ground displacement of λ / 2, where λ is wavelength of
radar microwave pulse being used. In the present work, ERS
SAR C-band (wavelength = 5.6 cm) radar data with mean
incidence angle 23° have been used. Each subsidence fringe
therefore represents 28 / Cos(23°) or 30.42 mm of deformation.
2.3. Data used
In this work, 4 InSAR data pairs consisting of seven C-band
ERS SAR VV-polarization images have been processed (Table 1).
The master (previous: t1) image of each InSAR data pair was
acquired during post-monsoon time when the piezometric head
of the underlying aquifer is high whereas the slave (later: t2)
image was acquired during pre-monsoon time of the subsequent
years when the piezometric head is low. Consequently, the
change in piezometric head during the data acquisition interval
of each pair becomes maximum.
Two types of deformation can occur due to piezometric fall.
The aquifer sand layer undergoes elastic compression as long
as piezometric fall continues which however reverts back
when the piezometric head rises during the subsequent post-
monsoon time. On the other hand, the decrease in artesian
pressure in the aquifer creates a hydraulic gradient between the
aquifer and overlying clay layer which results in the leakage
of pore water from the confining layer. The draining out of
pore water from the clay layer reduces pore pressure and
therefore inelastic compression of the confining layer takes
place. Since, piezometric fall is the maximum during post-
monsoon–pre-monsoon periods; both elastic compression of
Table 1
ERS-1 and ERS-2 InSAR data pairs of Kolkata City with post-monsoon (master) vs. pre-monsoon (slave) combinations acquired during 1992–1998
Interfero-gram 7335E1* 10842E1* 11343E1* 24713E1*
10.12.92 12.08.93 16.09.93 06.04.96
(Post -)** (Post -)** (Post -)** (Pre -)**
‘a’
B =14 m B =11 m
‘b’
B =131 m B = –79 m Δt=968 days
‘c’
B =–35 m B =–36 m
‘d’
B =–25 m B =29 m
⁎E1 and E2 stand for ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellite missions and are followed by the respective orbit nos.
⁎⁎Post- and Pre- stand for post-monsoon and pre-monsoon periods when the piezometric levels of the aquifer system are high and low respectively.
179
the aquifer and inelastic compression of the confining clay
layer can occur together in case of post-monsoon (t1)–pre-
monsoon (t2) data pairs. Consequently, land subsidence
phenomenon will be potentially more pronounced in case of
post-monsoon (t1)–pre-monsoon (t2) data pairs compared to
that in pre-monsoon (t1)–pre-monsoon (t2) and post-monsoon
(t1)–post-monsoon (t2) data pairs of similar duration. In
Kolkata City, where slow subsidence phenomenon is occur-
ring mainly due to groundwater over-drafting, it will be easier
to identify the subsiding areas from post-monsoon (t1)–pre-
monsoon (t2) InSAR data pairs compared to other sets of
InSAR data pairs.
Ancillary data on subsurface geology, evolution of
piezometric level with time, excavation and dewatering of
shallow aquifer for construction of subsurface transport way
‘Metro Rail’, and information related to planning and
development of the city were collected from the respective
organizations, viz., Central Ground Water Board (CGWB),
West Bengal State Water Investigation Directorate (SWID,
West Bengal), Metro Rail, and National Atlas and Thematic
Mapping Organization (NATMO). Necessary ground truth on
borehole locations for subsurface geology, observation well
points for studying the changes in piezometric level with time
and landuse pattern in the area were collected during field
survey.
3. Results
It is observed that in interferograms ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘d’ (i.e.,
ERS1_7335 vs. ERS2_17064, ERS1_10842 vs. ERS1_24713
and ERS1_11343 vs. ERS1_25214 respectively), coherence is
low to moderate and fringe(s) are fairly developed. In
interferogram ‘c’ (i.e., ERS1_10842 vs. ERS2_6543), coher-
ence is low and the fringe(s) are poorly developed.
Initially, the interferograms were studied to find out the
fringe(s) with common geographic location in different
interferograms so that the fringe(s) representing land subsidence
can be correlated and thereby they can be separated from
atmospheric artefacts. It is known that spatial variability of the
atmosphere changes with time and therefore fringes produced
25214E1* 6543E2* 17064E2* Remarks
11.05.96 21.07.96 26.07.98
(Pre -)** (Pre -)** (Pre -)**
Low to moderate coherence;
Δt=2054 days fairly defined fringe(s)
Low to moderate coherence;
Δt=1074 days fairly defined fringes
Low coherence;
poorly defined fringe(s)
Low to moderate coherence;
Δt=968 days fairly defined fringe(s) with
atmospheric artefacts
180 R.S. Chatterjee et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 102 (2006) 176–185

by atmospheric effects are not supposed to have fixed geo- period of time due to similar prevailing conditions responsible
graphic position in independent interferometric pairs whereas for land subsidence. We have observed a poorly to fairly defined
land subsidence continues to occur at the same location for a fringe with common geographic location in some of the

Fig. 2. Filtered interferograms ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’ displayed in rainbow colour scheme are showing several fringes (deformation fringes and atmospheric artefacts).
Average amplitude image and coherence image of one of the interferometric pairs, e.g., for interferometric pair ‘b’, are also shown.
 R.S. Chatterjee et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 102 (2006) 176–185 181

interferograms, which becomes better recognizable after
filtering (interferogram nos. ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’; Fig. 2). Subse-
quently, the independent interferograms with serial no. ‘a’ and
‘b’, and ‘b’ and ‘d’ have been summed up separately in complex
domain to highlight deformation fringes over atmospheric arte-
facts (Fig. 3). In the sum interferograms, a well-defined
deformation fringe has been observed. Assuming a simplified
linear uniform subsidence over time, the average rate of land
subsidence has been measured separately from two sum inter-
ferograms. We have used VIBGYOR colour scheme for dis-
playing a phase cycle or a fringe (i.e., 2π radian phase
difference) in the interferogram. In the sum interferogram ‘ab’,
we obtain G-Y-O-R | V-I-B-G-Y colour rings from the periphery
to the centre of the fringes. It describes the phase difference sum
for the interferograms ‘a’ and ‘b’ together = (9 / 7) ⁎ 2π radians
due to land subsidence for an overlapping period of 2044 days
(for interferogram ‘a’) + 968 days (for interferogram ‘b’) =
3012 days. The average rate of land subsidence is therefore =
((9 / 7) ⁎ 30.42) / (3012 / 365) = 4.74 mm/year (∼5 mm/
year). Similarly, in case of ‘bd’ sum interferogram, we obtain

(a) 7335E1 17064E2 10842E1 24713E1

(10.12.92) (26.7.98) (12.8.93) (06.4.96)

D-InSAR processing D-InSAR processing

(Assuming flat topography) (Assuming flat topography)

Differential Differential
Interferogram ‘a’ Interferogram 'b'

Filtering Filtering
(Goldstein & Werner, 1998) (Goldstein & Werner, 1998)

Observe fringes and Observe fringes and

fringe centre locations fringe centre locations

Summing in complex domain

Sum Interferogram ‘ab'

Filtering

Observe and analyze

deformation fringes

Estimate average subsidence rate

(b)

(i) (ii)

Fig. 3. a: Flow chart describing the generation of sum interferograms ‘ab’ from InSAR data pairs and analysis. b: Sum interferograms of ‘a’ and ‘b’ individual
interferograms (i) and ‘b’ and ‘d’ individual interferograms (ii) respectively. Deformation rate may be obtained by dividing total deformation with total time interval
elapsed by two individual interferograms in either case assuming uniform deformation.
182 R.S. Chatterjee et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 102 (2006) 176–185
Fig. 4. IHS colour composition of the sum interferograms ((i) and (ii) respectively in Fig. 3b) (H) average backscattered amplitude image of one of the interferograms
of the sum interferogram (I) and coherence image of one of the interferograms of the sum interferogram (S) to highlight the areas that underwent subsidence during the
1990s.
G-Y-O-R | V-I-B-G colour rings from the periphery to the centre
of the fringes which give the total phase difference of (8 / 7) ⁎ 2π
radians for an overlapping period of 968 days (for interferogram
‘b’) + 968 days (for interferogram ‘d’) = 1936 days. The average
rate of land subsidence as obtained from the ‘bd’ sum
interferogram is therefore = 6.55 mm/year (∼6.5 mm/year).
Both the sum interferograms were then displayed in IHS
colour space using sum interferometric phase as hue compo-
nent, coherence image of one of the interferometric pairs of the
sum interferogram (preferably the better coherence image) as
saturation component and average amplitude image of one of
the interferometric pairs of the sum interferogram as intensity
component (Fig. 4). In IHS images of sum interferograms, it is
observed that the subsidence fringe is located in and around
Machhua Bazar, Calcutta University and Rajabazar Science
College. Approximate subsidence contours are shown on
enlarged subsidence fringe in the IHS images of sum
interferograms.
4. Discussion
The phenomenon of land subsidence resulting from heavy
withdrawal of groundwater for municipal supply, industrial or
irrigational use has been observed in various parts of the world,
viz., Venice and Bologna (Italy), Mexico City (Mexico), Tokyo
and Osaka (Japan), Arizona, California and Nevada (United
States), Ruhrgebiet (Germany) (Amelung et al., 1999; Galloway
et al., 1998; Rahman, 1995; Sikdar et al., 1996; Strozzi et al.,
2001, 2003). In Kolkata City, India, land subsidence is believed
to have been occurring due to over-drafting of groundwater to
meet the water-demand of a rapidly growing population and
other ancillary activities (Biswas & Saha, 1985; Sikdar et al.,
1996). In Kolkata City area, an average of 40 m thick surface
clay layer (which goes up to 60–70 m at places) exists over the
aquifer sand layer. The decline of piezometric pressure due to
groundwater withdrawal results in the loss of pore pressure of
the aquifer system and increases the effective stress over the
aquifer sand layer. The elastic compression of aquifer sand layer
may be largely adjusted by the overlying thick and extensive
clay layer by lateral readjustment of clay particles. Conse-
quently, subsidence may not be manifested at the surface. On
the other hand, a sharp decline of piezometric pressure due to
heavy withdrawal of groundwater creates a hydraulic gradient
between the aquifer and overlying confining clay layer. This
results into the leakage of pore water from the confining clay
layer leading to inelastic compression and therefore vertical
shortening of the clay layer.
For such an area, it appears important first to find out the
areas undergoing subsidence than precise subsidence rate
measurement. For this purpose, appropriate InSAR data pairs
which potentially record maximum land subsidence during the
study period would facilitate the study to a large extent.
Considering the major cause of land subsidence being
groundwater over-draft, post-monsoon (t1)–pre-monsoon (t2)
InSAR data pairs were chosen which include both elastic and
inelastic deformations.
In most of the D-InSAR based subsidence measurements
recorded in the literature (Amelung et al., 1999; Avallone et al.,
1999; Carnec et al., 1995; Ding et al., 2004; Haynes et al., 1997;
Massonnet et al., 1997; Strozzi et al., 2001, 2003; van der Kooij,
1997), the rate of subsidence is appreciably high, normally 2–
3 cm and above per year. Therefore, the question of temporal
decorrelation in relatively short-term InSAR data pairs is much
less and heterogeneous atmospheric effect is much subdued. On
the other hand, where the rate of subsidence is very slow and
spatio-temporal change of the atmosphere is high (due to urban
 R.S. Chatterjee et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 102 (2006) 176–185 183

pollution and/or the location of the sites being at or near the sea
coast), as in the present case, temporal decorrelation in long-
term InSAR data pairs and atmospheric artefacts make it
extremely difficult to identify the deformation fringes and
estimate the rate of subsidence.
For detecting very slowly subsiding areas in Kolkata City,
we have procured and processed InSAR data pairs with
sufficiently long temporal baselines, which inevitably introduce
significant temporal decorrelation in the data pairs. We have
observed that in unfiltered differential interferograms, the
fringes are difficult to recognize due to the overlying noise
introduced from temporal decorrelation of the InSAR data pairs.
In this work, filtering of the noisy interferograms by the
technique of Goldstein and Werner (1998) has been found to be
effective for highlighting the fringes from noise substantially.
Subsequently, comparing the geographic locations of the fringes
in individual interferograms, we can identify the common
fringes. The common fringes are actually the deformation
fringes as the fringes developed due to atmospheric effect are
random in spatio-temporal nature. But, it is difficult and
cumbersome to locate the common fringes from individual
interferograms as the fringes are not always equally developed
and are not of same areal extent. On the other hand, summing of
the interferograms in complex domain highlights the deforma-
tion fringes by adding the common fringes occurring in
independent interferograms whereas it dilutes the fringes due
to atmospheric effect. In this work, in both the sum
interferograms ‘a–b’ and ‘b–d’, we observe that one fringe is
much highlighted whereas others are diluted. The highlighted
Kolkata City since 1976 (USGS National Earthquake Informa-
tion Center, 2005). During the observation period, recorded
seismic events in surrounding areas with magnitude 4 mb and
above, viz., 4.6, 4.6 and 4.6 mb occurred on 16.5.1993,
28.9.1994 and 24.9.1996 at a distance of 153, 95 and 96 km
respectively from the city centre (USGS National Earthquake
Information Center, 2005). It may therefore be inferred that
seismic shocks and associated down warping of sediments did
not play any significant role for subsidence in the study area
during the period of observation. Similarly, for the construction
of Metro Rail for a length of 16.45 km, excavation along the
scheduled track and dewatering of shallow aquifers at places
(where near-surface river channel deposits occur) were carried
out in two phases. The said operations under Phase-I and Phase-
II were completed around 1985 and 1991 respectively. It,
therefore, appears that Metro Rail construction does not play
any role in the subsidence phenomenon of Kolkata City during
the study period, 1992–1998. Finally, we have studied the
evolution of piezometric pressure during the period of
observation in and around the subsiding areas of D-InSAR
based results. We have two observation points, GW23 located to
the north and GW24 located to the east of subsiding zone (Fig. 4).
The maximum effective piezometric fall at GW23 and GW24
has been found to be ∼3 and ∼4.5 m respectively during the
observation period (Fig. 5). The shape of the subsidence fringe
broadly represents an E–W trending ellipse which is supported
-11
Piezometric level (m.)

fringe is observed in all the three independent interferograms

-12 ΔΔ
‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘d’ covering different temporal baselines. The Post-monsoon
highlighted fringe therefore represents subsiding areas in ΔΔ
-13
Kolkata City during the study period. The sum interferograms Pre-monsoon
‘a–b’ and ‘b–d’ span over the periods of observation 1992–
-14
1998 (a: 10.12.92–26.07.98; b: 12.08.93–06.04.96) and 1993–
1996 (b: 12.08.93–06.04.96; d: 16.09.93–11.05.96), respec-
-15
tively. The elastic deformation of sand aquifer occurs due to 1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998
post-monsoon–pre-monsoon piezometric fall of a year which Year
mostly reverts back during the subsequent post-monsoon (i)
period, provided the piezometric head is regained at its previous -10.5
post-monsoon level. As a result, in sum interferogram ‘a–b’,
Piezometric level (m.)

where the cumulative temporal baseline is more (∼8 years) than -11.5
ΔΔ
that in ‘b–d’ (∼5 years), the average rate of land subsidence has Post-monsoon
been found to be less (maximum ∼5 mm/year) than that in the -12.5
ΔΔ
latter case (maximum ∼6.5 mm/year).
-13.5 Pre-monsoon
The probable causes of land subsidence in Kolkata may be
attributed to: (i) normal compaction of fluvio-deltaic sediments,
-14.5
(ii) down-warping of sediments along reactivated/neo-tectonic
basement faults, (iii) excavation and dewatering of shallow -15.5
aquifer associated with the construction of 16.45 km long 1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998

subsurface transport way ‘Metro Rail’ across the study area, and
(iv) heavy withdrawal of groundwater to meet the water demand
of a huge population of the city, industries and ancillary
activities. Normal compaction of fluvio-deltaic sediments in the
area is a regional phenomenon and more-or-less uniform over
the entire study area. No seismic event with magnitude 2 mb
and above was found to occur within 50 km radius surrounding
Year
(ii)
Fig. 5. Changes in piezometric pressure during 1992–1998 in Kolkata City,
India at observations points GW23 (i) and GW24(ii) (locations are shown in
Fig. 4). ΔΔ Solid line represents post-monsoon piezometric fluctuation during
1992–1998. ∇∇ Dashed line represents pre-monsoon piezometric fluctuation
during 1992–1998. Piezometric data of 1995 are not available.
184 R.S. Chatterjee et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 102 (2006) 176–185
by stronger piezometric fall at GW24 than that in GW23.
However, more number of piezometric observation points,
particularly inside the subsidence fringe area, could substantiate
piezometric fall as the cause of land subsidence in Kolkata City
more definitively.
No independent and direct measurement is available to
validate the D-InSAR based results obtained from the present
study. However, Sikdar et al. (1996) estimated potential land
subsidence resulting from inelastic compression of confining clay
layer due to the decline of piezometric pressure using Domenico's
(1972) theorem. The average rate of potential subsidence (Sikdar
et al., 1996) has been found to be 8–12 mm/year for the subsiding
areas in D-InSAR based results. The consistently high thickness
of the clay layer occurring as confining bed over the aquifer might
have caused significantly reduced compressibility of deeper clay
(of the confining bed) which promoted lesser amount of
subsidence than potentially feasible. Also, the surface clay of
Kolkata, being highly compressible near the surface, has the
capability to spatially adjust minor vertical shortening over a
region. However, it raises the possibility of some lateral
displacements. For validation of D-InSAR based results, future
studies may be accompanied by precise GPS monitoring and
ground-based levelling measurements.
The study shows that the area in and around Machhua Bazar,
Calcutta University and Rajabazar Science College had been
undergoing land subsidence during the 1990s (Fig. 4). Due to the
lack of sufficient temporal correlation of the InSAR data pairs
over the entire city area, it is difficult to negate definitively if any
other areas of Kolkata City were subsiding during the study
period. Similarly, for understanding the nature of subsidence
during the study period, we need to procure and process more
number of InSAR data pairs with reasonable coherence and at
closer temporal baselines. However, for a more reliable and
precision measurements and modeling of subsidence, permanent
scatterer based SAR interferometry (PS InSAR) (Ferretti et al.,
2001) may be attempted in future. For modeling of land
subsidence primarily due to over-drafting of groundwater, it
appears to be essential to separate the components of subsidence
resulting from elastic compression of the aquifer and inelastic
compression of the confining bed on a yearly basis.
Acknowledgements
The work has been carried out under ESA Category-1 project
with collaborative efforts from IIRS, NRSA, Dept. of Space, India
and IFG, UMLV, France. The authors acknowledge European
Space Agency for providing ERS SAR data at reproduction cost.
The authors are thankful to CGWB, SWID (West Bengal), Metro
Rail (Kolkata) and NATMO for providing collateral data and/or
ancillary information in the project. The authors convey their
sincere gratitude and thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their
suggestions and comments for improvement of the manuscript.
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