USGS

Detection and Measurement of Land Subsidence Using Global Positioning System and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, Coachella Valley, California, 1998—2000

By Michelle Sneed, S.V. Stork, and Marti E. Ikehara

 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Water-Resources Investigations Report 02-4239

Sacramento, California 2002


Prepared in cooperation with the Coachella Valley Water District



Text (2.2 MB PDF)

To view PDF documents, you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader (free from Adobe Systems) installed on your computer.
(download free copy of Acrobat Reader).

Abstract

Land subsidence associated with ground-water-level declines has been recognized as a potential problem in Coachella Valley, California. Since the early 1920s, ground water has been a major source of agricultural, municipal, and domestic supply in the valley. Pumping of ground water resulted in water-level declines as large as 15 meters (50 feet) through the late 1940s. In 1949, the importation of Colorado River water to the lower Coachella Valley began, resulting in a reduction in ground-water pumping and a recovery of water levels during the 1950s through the 1970s. Since the late 1970s, demand for water in the valley has exceeded deliveries of imported surface water, resulting in increased pumping and associated ground-water-level declines and, consequently, an increase in the potential for land subsidence caused by aquifer-system compaction.

The location, extent, and magnitude of the vertical land-surface changes in Coachella Valley between 1998 and 2000 were determined using Global Positioning System (GPS) and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) methods. GPS measurements made at 15 geodetic monuments in the lower Coachella Valley indicate that -34 to +60 millimeters ± 45 millimeters (-0.11 to +0.20 foot ± 0.15 foot) of vertical change in the land surface occurred during the 2-year period. Changes at three of the monuments exceeded the maximum uncertainty of ± 45 millimeters (± 0.15 foot) at the 95-percent confidence level, which indicates that small amounts of uplift occurred at these monuments between October 1998 and August 2000. Water-level measurements made at wells near the three uplifted monuments during this 2-year period indicate that the water levels fluctuate seasonally; water-level measurements made at these wells in September 1998 and September 2000 indicate that the water levels rose slightly near two monuments and declined slightly near the third. The relation between the seasonally fluctuating, but fairly stable, water levels between September 1998 and September 2000 and the slight uplift at the monuments may indicate that the water levels are fluctuating in the elastic range of stress and that the preconsolidation stress of the aquifer system was not exceeded during the 2-year period.

Results of the InSAR measurements made between June 17, 1998, and October 4, 2000, indicate that land subsidence, ranging from about 40 to 80 millimeters (0.13 to 0.26 foot), occurred in three areas of the Coachella Valley; near Palm Desert, Indian Wells, and La Quinta. Measurements made between June 17, 1998, and June 2, 1999, indicate that about 15 millimeters (0.05 foot) occurred southeast of Lake Cahuilla. All the subsiding areas coincide with or are near areas where ground-water levels declined between 1998 and 2000; some water levels in 2000 were at the lowest levels in their recorded histories. The coincident areas of subsidence and declining water levels suggest that aquifer-system compaction may be causing subsidence. If the stresses imposed by the historically lowest water levels exceeded the preconsolidation stress, the aquifer-system compaction and associated land subsidence may be permanent. Although the localized character of the subsidence signals look typical of the type of subsidence characteristically caused by localized pumping, the subsidence also may be related to tectonic activity in the valley.

Contents

Abstract

Introduction

Purpose and Scope

Description of Study Area

Acknowledgments

Geohydrologic Setting

Mechanics of Pumping-Induced Land Subsidence

Global Positioning System (GPS) Surveys

Land-Subsidence Monitoring Network

Determination of Ellipsoid Heights

1998 GPS Survey

2000 GPS Survey

GPS Results

Ground-Water Levels

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR)

InSAR Results

Comparison with GPS Results

Areas of Land Subsidence

Ground-Water Levels

Future Monitoring

Summary And Conclusions

References Cited


Document Accessibility: Adobe Systems Incorporated has information about PDFs and the visually impaired. This information provides tools to help make PDF files accessible. These tools convert Adobe PDF documents into HTML or ASCII text, which then can be read by a number of common screen-reading programs that synthesize text as audible speech. In addition, an accessible version of Acrobat Reader 5.0 for Windows (English only), which contains support for screen readers, is available. These tools and the accessible reader may be obtained free from Adobe at Adobe Access.

 


Water Resources of California


FirstGov button  Take Pride in America button