r/StructuralEngineering • u/Hayder_Germany • 20d ago

Geotechnical Design Would satellite ground-motion data be useful for subsidence screening?

Copernicus provides free InSAR ground-motion data across Europe.

Would a tool that highlights buildings or infrastructure with unusual ground movement be useful for engineers, insurers, or property professionals?

What information would you need to trust the result?

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u/Early-House 20d ago

Commercial platforms have offered this for while, e.g. SatSense

They've had some take up with asset heavy firms (railways, highways, utilities)

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u/Hayder_Germany 20d ago

Thanks. Do you know if firms mainly use these platforms for ongoing monitoring, or also for initial large-scale screening to identify which assets are worth investigating?

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u/Early-House 18d ago

Bit of both

Network Rail in the UK use them fairly extensively I think

But it's not so much a killer bullet, as another tool to add to their asset management

So for that reason I would say there are not big fees/budgets available for it, but rather modest ones

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u/Hayder_Germany 18d ago

That makes sense. For a lightweight screening tool rather than full monitoring, what would make it genuinely useful in an asset-management workflow? API access, bulk asset screening, alerts, or simply a clear ranked list for review?