Commercial Services

Neva Ridge works with members of the Groundwater, Oil and Gas, Minerals Mining and Civil Engineering communities to provide detailed ground deformation measurements and products. Differential interferometric SAR (DifSAR) is often the preferred measurement technique for a variety of commercial geotechnical users, providing vastly improved spatial coverage relative to conventional leveling campaigns. Temporal coverage is available with sampling as frequent as every two weeks. With an emphasis on techniques that measure evolution of ground deformation over time, the DifSAR family of processing algorithms provides accuracies that are as high as on the order of millimeters.

The differential SAR services Neva Ridge provides utilizes a variety of international spaceborne commercial SAR systems which can be controlled to regularly and reliably image the customer's area of interest. During the initial stage of a project, Neva Ridge works with the customer to determine the optimal approach to collecting SAR data for DifSAR processing. Variables considered in this process include ground-cover type, anticipated magnitude of deformation, spatial extent of the area of interest and time extent of interest, among others. Neva Ridge then provides recommendations regarding a monitoring plan or forensic data set. Often, a small pilot project is recommended in order to fully understand the potential for DifSAR success at the particular site. We then work directly with the representatives of candidate satellite agencies to specify data acquisitions and data delivery. Following processing and analysis at Neva Ridge, information products are delivered to the customer, including a temporal history of geocoded deformation in any specified format. Depending on the specific requirements of the customer, Neva Ridge will provide extended analysis of the measurements as well as on-site visits to present results to stakeholders.

Past and ongoing service activities and geotechnical applications include the following areas:

• Subsidence monitoring and forensic analysis of aquifer deformation
• Detection of ground motion associated with mine dewatering
• Measurement of ground deformation associated with the oil extraction process
• Landslide detection
• Monitoring of motion along dams
• Detection and measurement of ground motion above mining operations

For further information on Neva Ridge's commercial services, contact David Cohen.