Landslide evolution assessment based on sequential InSAR methods in the Kunming transmission line corridor

Abstract The security of the transmission line corridor is an important guarantee for the sustainable supply of electricity and an important prerequisite for the rapid development of the economy. Transmission corridors located in high mountains and valleys are often threatened by geological disasters, which seriously affect their stable operation. The main idea of this research is to explore a landslide in the Kunming transmission corridor in November 2021 and analyze its reason. In this study, we investigated the landslide in Kunming using 79 Sentinel-1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images acquired from July 2020 to October 2021 (40 ascending images and 39 descending images) with sequential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) methods. Then, the deformation changes before the landslide were analyzed in many ways. Influencing factors (i.e. precipitation, formation lithology, and vegetation coverage) indicated a high correlation between landslide locations and those of the study region. Seasonal variations in deformation were related to precipitation. The landslide in the Kunming transmission line corridor was mainly attributed to precipitation, carbonate karstification, and vegetation coverage. Finally, the correlation between deformation changes before the landslide and influencing factors in the Kunming transmission line corridor were determined.