Monitoring Land Surface Deformation Using Multi-Temporal Sentinel-1 InSAR: A Case Study from Egypt

The Egyptian Eastern Desert has experienced rapid landscape transformation over the past decade due to intensive anthropogenic activities, including highway construction, urban expansion, limestone quarrying, land reclamation, and large-scale national development projects. These activities have significantly modified the natural topography and geomorphological characteristics of extensive desert areas, creating an increasing demand for reliable and cost-effective techniques to monitor land surface deformation and landscape evolution. This study evaluates the potential of multi-temporal Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery for detecting and monitoring land surface deformation across selected regions of the Egyptian Eastern Desert between 2015 and 2025. An integrated remote sensing framework combining Sentinel-1 SAR time-series change detection with deep learning techniques was implemented using ENVI and ArcGIS Pro to identify the spatial and temporal patterns of surface deformation associated with highway networks, newly developed urban communities, quarrying activities, and other human-induced land transformations. The results demonstrate that multi-temporal Sentinel-1 InSAR provides a robust, cost-effective, and all-weather solution for continuous monitoring of land surface deformation over large geographic areas. Significant deformation patterns were detected in zones affected by quarrying, infrastructure development, and urban expansion, highlighting the sensitivity of SAR observations to topographic changes induced by anthropogenic activities. The proposed methodology offers an efficient framework for environmental monitoring, infrastructure management, land-use planning, and sustainable development while supporting future geospatial assessments of human-induced landscape change in Egypt's arid environments