Geotechnical and SAR interferometric investigation of collapsible soils in the Biskra region using geographic information system

Collapsible soils have a distinctive porous structure and are frequently made of metastable sedimentary deposits,when clay minerals are present, the grains cement together, which keeps the soil stable when it's dry. The event known as collapse occurs when water seeps through these linkages, causing the grains to lose their cohesiveness and reorganize, significant harm to civil engineering projects can result from this process, especially in arid or semi-arid areas like southern Algeria where sensitive silty clays predominate,the behavior of collapsible soils in the northeastern Algerian region of Biskra is the main subject of this study, in order to evaluate these soils' propensity to collapse, an experimental program was put into place, to determine the most vulnerable sites, a risk mapping exercise was carried out concurrently, large-scale soil collapses were identified and measured using satellite radar interferometry (InSAR), with the help of Copernicus data and the freely available SNAP program, we produced interferogram maps that showed the regions most impacted by collapses, this study adds to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and emphasizes the usefulness of experimental methods and InSAR in the study of collapsible soils.