The subway alleviates the traffic pressure in the city but also brings the potential risk of land subsidence. The land subsidence caused by the subway is a global problem that seriously affects the safety of subway operations and surrounding buildings. Therefore, it is very important to carry out long-term deformation monitoring on the subway system. StaMPS-PS is a time-series Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique that serves as an effective means for monitoring urban ground subsidence. However, the accuracy of external (Digital Elevation Models) DEM will affect the accuracy of StaMPS-PS monitoring, and previous studies have mostly used SRTM-1 arc DEM (30 m) as the external DEM. In this study, to obtain a more precise measurement of surface deformation caused by the excavation of the Hohhot subway, a total of 85 scenes of Sentinel-1A data from July 2015 to October 2021, as well as two different resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) (ALOS PALSAR DEM and SRTM-1 arc DEM), were used to calculate and analyze the subsidence along the subway line in Hohhot city. The StaMPS-PS monitoring results showed the ALOS PALSAR DEM, as an external DEM, had higher accuracy, and there was regional subsidence in both the construction processes of Line 1 and Line 2 of the Hohhot subway, with a maximum subsidence rate of −21.1 mm/year. The dynamic changes in subway subsidence were fitted using the Peck formula and the long short-term memory (LSTM) model. The Peck formula results showed the width and maximum subsidence of the settlement troughs gradually expanded during the construction of the subway. The predicted values of the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of the LSTM model were less than 4 mm and 10%, respectively, consistent with the measured results. Furthermore, we discussed the factors that affect settlement along the subway line and the impact of two external DEMs on StaMPS-PS. The study results provide a scientific method for DEM selection and subsidence analysis calculations in the StaMPS-PS monitoring of urban subway subsidence.

Engineering site and shaft pillars are excavated to prolong the life of collieries and excavate more underground coal. The Jinggezhuang colliery (‘JGZ’) is a resource-exhausted coal mine in eastern China. It was determined that the industrial site and shaft pillar of JGZ would be extracted in 2008. This study excavated an experimental panel to examine the effect of pillar excavation on surface buildings in complicated geological conditions. A new pillar design was proposed based on surface monitoring to increase the recovery ratio. To maintain the safety of the shaft and engineering facilities, panel 0091 was mined and surface deformation was monitored during the experiment. The deformation characteristics and parameters were obtained using a back analysis method. A new pillar was designed using the parameters measured from panel 0091. The design maintained the safety of the shaft but relaxed the restriction of the influence of constructions at the engineering site. The prediction results of the surface subsidence and the deformation of the main building were analyzed. The maximum subsidence of the surface was 7419 mm, but the surface subsidence of the shafts was less than 10 mm. The shafts were weakly influenced by the pillar excavation. The prediction results can be used as basic information for the monitoring and maintenance of buildings in the future. Using the new pillar design, 2.54 million tons of coal resources were mined. This study provides an engineering example and a reference for shaft pillar excavation in the future.