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Subsidence monitoring in the Sydney Basin, New South Wales: Results of the Camden Environmental Monitoring Project

This Geoscience Australia Record documents the scientific analysis undertaken, and results obtained from geodetic monitoring during the Camden Environmental Monitoring Project (CEMP); a collaborative project undertaken with the New South Wales Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. The aim of the CEMP was to determine the environmental impacts, if any, of active coal seam gas extraction projects in New South Wales. Geodetic monitoring, using satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements, was used to specifically assess if subsidence (downward vertical land movement) is occurring at the Camden Gas Project; at the time the State’s only actively producing coal seam gas project. To address this question, Geoscience Australia undertook a comprehensive InSAR analysis using data sets from three orbiting radar satellites (ALOS, Envisat and Radarsat-2) covering two periods of time (2006 to 2010, and 2015 to 2019). The outputs of this InSAR analysis are vertical and horizontal ground surface displacement and velocity map products, together with a quantification of the uncertainty of these measurements. Furthermore, a new network of 20 ground geodetic monitoring sites was established in May and June 2016 for the purpose of validating measurements made using InSAR. GPS data was collected at these monitoring sites between July 2016 and June 2019 and processed to obtain 3-dimensional ground surface displacement and velocity measurements. From the analysis of independent InSAR and GPS data sets undertaken during the CEMP, we conclude that no measurable subsidence (i.e. a land movement velocity not greater than 10 mm/yr) has occurred as a result of coal seam gas production in the Camden Gas Project during the time periods of monitoring. However, decimetre-scale horizontal and vertical surface movements have occurred in the Southern Coalfields at the locations of subsurface longwall coal mines. Comparison of the measurements made by InSAR and GPS across the 20-site geodetic monitoring network shows that the two independent geodetic techniques agree within 10 millimetres, even when decimetre-scale movement is occurring. This demonstrates the potential for utilising InSAR for accurate remote monitoring of ground surface movements (including subsidence) at large scales and in the absence of sufficient ground geodetic monitoring infrastructure. The conclusions drawn and the measurements made in this work are specific to the area covered by the CEMP geodetic monitoring project, and are therefore not applicable to other resource extraction activities in other areas because of operational and geological differences from site to site. However, the methods described herein would be applicable to monitoring other resource extraction activities.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2020-01-26
Date (Publication)
2020-08-24T05:57:50
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144247

Citation identifier
Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2020.016

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Garthwaite, M.C.

Author

Fuhrmann, T.

Name

Record

Issue identification

2020/016

Purpose

Document findings of Camden Geodetic Monitoring Project

Status
Completed
Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Resource provider

Place, Space and Communities Division

External Contact
Point of contact

Hall, L.S.

External Contact
Spatial representation type
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

Temporal extent

Time period
2006-06-26 2019-05-31

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
As needed

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
  • EARTH SCIENCES

  • Environmental Monitoring

  • Natural Resource Management

Keywords
  • Geodetic Monitoring

Keywords
  • Sydney Basin

Keywords
  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
OnLine resource

Download the Record (pdf) [9.1 MB]

Download the Record (pdf) [9.1 MB]

Distribution format
  • pdf

OnLine resource

Download the data (xlsx) [360.5 KB]

Download the data (xlsx) [360.5 KB]

Distribution format
  • xlsx

Resource lineage

Statement

Not supplied

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/24830785-31b3-436f-9184-aad6343a895c

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Point of contact

Garthwaite, M.C.

External Contact

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

GA Publication: GA Record

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/144247

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5167d912-6784-4371-9938-3931e84ca6f1

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au:80/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/24830785-31b3-436f-9184-aad6343a895c

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/24830785-31b3-436f-9184-aad6343a895c

Date info (Creation)
2019-04-08T01:55:29
Date info (Revision)
2019-04-08T01:55:29

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

Geodetic Monitoring Sydney Basin
theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
EARTH SCIENCES Environmental Monitoring Natural Resource Management

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