Landslide-inventory maps updating by means of persistent scatterer interferometry: the Portella di Mare case study, Sicily, Italy

The paper shows an innovative procedure to update the landslide‐inventory map of the Portella di Mare area (north‐western Sicily, Italy) affected by slow‐moving landslides, through the integration of two different approaches: remote sensing and geomorphological survey. The former is carried out by the application of Persistent Scatterer Pairs Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (PSP‐DIFSAR) algorithm to COSMO‐SkyMed images for September 2008 to October 2011 time span, while the latter by means of conventional field techniques. The two datasets have been combined and examined in a Geographical Information System environment to update the state of activity of pre‐existing landslides and detect unmapped phenomena. The results bear out the consistency of the procedure allowing: a) to confirm phenomena already mapped in the Hydro‐geomorphological Setting Plan (HSP) of Sicily, b) to detect new landslides, c) to redraw the scar of landslides already reported in the HSP allowing to reconstruct the evolution of such phenomena.