Geohazard phenomenon induced by salt exploitation and applied new methods for monitoring ground surface movements

The subsidence occurring in the city of Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is an important issue which has caused several damages in the past decades. This phenomenon is related to the massive extraction of salt and the presence of salt caverns below the city. The salt mine was closed between 2006 and 2007 by means of filling the salt mine rooms with water, but the subsidence still continues over some parts of the city. This paper presents geohazard phenomenon caused by the exploitation of the salt mine in Tuzla, as well as the interpretation of the monitoring results of subsidence measured by new satellite technology together with the previous results, i.e., 2004 – 2007 by GPS, 2013 – 2024 by GPS, 2014 – 2019 by DInSAR technology, and 2019 – 2024 by DInSAR from authors. The time transition for the subsidence obtained by DInSAR shows a good agreement with the monitoring results by GPS. It is found that the subsidence in Tuzla is still on-going at a rate of 1 – 2 cm/year in the measured points of salt deposit, while point number 16 and its surroundings currently have greater subsidence compared to the remaining part of the Tuzla salt deposit. This paper concludes that DInSAR technology has proven to be an excellent method for monitoring the subsidence of the terrain at the city of Tuzla and would represent an accurate and reliable approach for monitoring similary affected areas.