Landslides are common natural disasters that cause serious damage to ecosystems and human societies. To effectively prevent and mitigate these disasters, an accurate assessment of landslide hazards is necessary. However, most traditional landslide hazard assessment methods rely on static assessment factors while ignoring the dynamic changes in landslides, which may lead to false-positive errors in the assessment results. This paper presents a novel landslide hazard assessment method for the Zagunao River basin, China. In this study, an updated landslide inventory was obtained for the Zagunao River basin using data from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and optical images. Based on this inventory, a landslide susceptibility map was developed using a random forest algorithm. Finally, an evaluation matrix was created by combining the results of deformation rates from both ascending and descending data to establish a hazard level that considers surface deformation. The method presented in this study can reflect recent landslide hazards in the region and produce dynamic assessments of regional landslide hazards. It provides a basis for the government to identify and manage high-risk areas.

The Upper Jinsha River (UJSR) has great water resource potential, but large-scale active landslides hinder water resource development and utilization. It is necessary to understand the spatial distribution and deformation trend of active landslides in the UJSR. In areas of high elevations, steep terrain or otherwise inaccessible to humans, extensive landslide studies remain challenging using traditional geological surveys and monitoring equipment. Stacking interferometry synthetic aperture radar (stacking-InSAR) technology, optical satellite images and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photography are applied to landslide identification. Small baseline subset interferometry synthetic aperture radar (SBAS-InSAR) was used to obtain time-series deformation curves of samples to reveal the deformation types of active landslides. A total of 246 active landslides were identified within the study area, of which 207 were concentrated in three zones (zones I, II and III). Among the 31 landslides chosen as research samples, six were linear-type landslides, three were upward concave-type landslides, 10 were downward concave-type landslides, and 12 were step-type landslides based on the curve morphology. The results can aid in monitoring and early-warning systems for active landslides within the UJSR and provide insights for future studies on active landslides within the basin.

Reservoir impoundment imposes a significant triggering effect on bank landslides. Studying the early identification of landslides and their stability concerning reservoir water levels and rainfall is vital for guaranteeing the safety of residents and infrastructure in reservoir regions. This study proposed a method for establishing a dynamic inventory of active landslides at large hydropower stations using integrated remote sensing techniques, demonstrated at Lianghekou Reservoir. We employed interferometric stacking synthetic aperture radar (stacking-InSAR) technology, small baseline subset interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SBAS-InSAR) technology, and optical satellite images to identify and catalogue active landslides. Moreover, we conducted field investigations to examine the deformation characteristics of landslides. Finally, Pearson’s correlation analysis was employed to evaluate the response between deformation values, reservoir water levels, and rainfall. The results revealed 75 active landslides, including 12 long-term active landslides before impoundment and 63 new landslides after impoundment, which were primarily concentrated in the Waduo and Yazho–Zatou regions. The correlation coefficient between landslide deformation values and the reservoir level was high (0.93), while the correlation coefficient with rainfall was low (0.57). The results of this research offer a crucial foundation for preventing and mitigating landslides in reservoir areas.

In densely vegetated and topographically complex mountainous areas, the applicability of SAR data for potential landslide hazard identification depends not only on whether slopes are visible to the radar, but also on whether stable interferometric coherence can be preserved under vegetation and terrain constraints. To clarify the applicability differences between L-band Lutan-1 and C-band Sentinel-1 in such environments, this study focused on Hanyuan County, Sichuan Province, China. Ascending and descending SAR images acquired by the two satellite systems from 2024 to 2025 were processed using stacking-based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (Stacking-InSAR) and Small Baseline Subset Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SBAS-InSAR) to extract regional deformation anomalies and time-series deformation characteristics of representative landslides. DEM, LiDAR, optical imagery, fractional vegetation cover (FVC) derived from Sentinel-2, and field investigation data were further integrated to establish a comparative framework linking geometric visibility, interferometric coherence, and landslide identification results. The results show that both Lutan-1 and Sentinel-1 provided favorable geometric observation conditions after combining ascending and descending tracks, with joint visibility proportions of 98.48% and 97.76%, respectively, indicating limited differences in geometric coverage within the study area. However, at a unified grid scale, the mean coherence and valid grid-cell proportion of Lutan-1 reached 0.564 and 72.49%, respectively, substantially higher than those of Sentinel-1, which were 0.320 and 24.26%. As FVC increased, coherence decreased for both datasets, but Lutan-1 maintained higher coherence in densely vegetated areas, suggesting stronger adaptability to vegetation-induced decorrelation. Based on integrated interpretation of multi-source remote sensing data, 77 potential landslide hazards were identified in the study area, including 74 detected by Lutan-1, 17 detected by Sentinel-1, and 14 jointly detected by both datasets. Comparisons of representative landslides further show that Lutan-1 provided a higher density of valid deformation points in densely vegetated and small-scale landslides, with deformation patterns corresponding well to slope geomorphic boundaries and local deformation zones. Sentinel-1, with its higher temporal sampling density, can provide complementary information for time-series verification and multi-source cross-validation of key landslides. These results indicate that Lutan-1 is more suitable for spatial identification of potential landslide hazards in densely vegetated, topographically complex mountainous areas, while the joint use of Lutan-1 and Sentinel-1 can better balance landslide identification detail and time-series monitoring continuity.

Human-induced mined-out areas are widely distributed across alpine regions, making reliable deformation detection particularly challenging. However, widespread low coherence and seasonal variations in snow cover cause severe spatiotemporal decorrelation and phase-unwrapping errors, substantially limiting the applicability of conventional InSAR techniques in these regions. To address these limitations, this study proposes an SCA-constrained seasonal partitioning Stacking-InSAR method based on the relationship between snow cover and interferometric coherence. The proposed method was applied to the Songhu Iron Mine in Xinjiang, China. Snow cover area (SCA) was first extracted from high-resolution Planet optical imagery and subsequently used to partition the interferometric network by season, thereby selecting high-quality summer interferometric pairs. This screening procedure reduced the interferometric network from 590 pairs to 168 high-quality pairs. The subsequent Stacking-InSAR results clearly delineated a spatially coherent surface subsidence zone within the mined-out area. The maximum line-of-sight (LOS) subsidence rate derived from the Stacking-InSAR analysis reached −132.31 mm/year. Overall, the proposed optical SCA-constrained seasonal partitioning strategy enabled Stacking-InSAR to identify a distinct subsidence funnel in an alpine region characterized by low coherence while maintaining high interferometric quality. The proposed method provides valuable technical and data support for deformation monitoring and geological hazard early warning in complex alpine environments.