Land subsidence in Konya Closed Basin and its spatio-temporal detection by GPS and DInSAR

Konya Closed Basin that includes two depression blocks, Konya and Tuz Gölü, is the biggest endorheic basin in Turkey. A lowering in the ground levels of the depositional areas has been shown with respect to the surrounding mountains. In the past, this process was controlled by geological and hydrogeological phenomena; nowadays, it has gained a new dimension due to the excessive pumping of groundwater to the Earth’s surface. The geodetic techniques such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) reveal a considerable land subsidence resulting in the rate of 1–4 cm/year in Konya sub-basin. It seems that the calculated amounts are responsible for changing environmental conditions like seasonality. Both GPS and differential InSAR techniques verify these relatively small fluctuations in the subsidence development. Target districts that should be observed primarily are agricultural zones where groundwater is overused for irrigation and regions where human population density is high. The geocoded interferogram and vegetation index map verify the spatial relation between the subsidence and green areas. In this study, a project dealing with the investigation of the land subsidence occurrences and of their possible causes and consequences within a specific part of Konya Closed Basin is introduced.