Mapping Active Surface Deformation in Fusagasugá and Silvania, Colombia, Using Sentinel-1 SBAS-InSAR and Campaign GNSS Observations
Edier F. Avila-Velez, Giovanny A. Avendano-Lopez, Juan F. Prieto, Sen Du, Joaquín EscayoThe municipalities of Fusagasugá and Silvania in Cundinamarca, Colombia, include rural mountainous terrain and infrastructure exposed to hydrometeorological and geological hazards, yet spatially continuous ground-deformation measurements remain limited. We mapped surface deformation using ascending and descending Sentinel-1 Small Baseline Subset Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SBAS-InSAR) observations acquired during 2020–2021 and compared local InSAR time series with four-epoch campaign GNSS measurements at four sites. The InSAR analysis identifies spatially coherent line-of-sight (LOS) deformation in San Antonio, San Luis Bajo, and El Bermejal. At P2 in San Antonio, the full-period linear trends of the coherence-weighted local InSAR time series are +4.7 mm/year for the ascending geometry and −17.8 mm/year for the descending geometry; descending LOS velocities reach approximately −31 mm/year at El Bermejal. At San Antonio, inversion of paired ascending and descending LOS velocities, assuming negligible north–south motion, yields dE=−18.3 mm/year (18.3 mm/year westward) and dU=−8.4 mm/year (8.4 mm/year downward). GNSS-to-LOS comparisons show substantial discrepancies at P2 and P4 and inconclusive agreement at P3; campaign GNSS is therefore treated as complementary point-scale evidence rather than as independent validation of the InSAR time series. The resulting deformation maps provide a screening basis for prioritizing follow-up geodetic, geomorphological, and geotechnical investigations rather than constituting landslide-susceptibility, hazard, risk, or early-warning products.