Research

I am interested in using geodetic and remote sensing tools to quantify recent land motion and crust deformation and how these changes affect our environment. Datasets such as SAR provide a huge opportunity to communities and researchers who cannot perform fieldwork. Besides, the understanding of the different geological, geophysical, and anthropological processes causing crust deformation is crucial to understand how to manage natural (and scarce) resources such as groundwater.

Therefore, my main research interests include remote sensing, geodesy, hydrology. To process the data I code (the best and almost the only way to use large datasets is coding!), use open-software and for visualizations QGIS and more code.

Current Projects

Patterns of land deformation around the Lake Pontchartrain. To understand how land moves at decadal and seasonal scales around the lake we are using InSAR time series from Sentinel-1 (2016-2025) and continous GNSS stations in the area. This research will allows to answer several questions like: Does the lake cause ground deformation due to elastic strain? can groundwater withdrawal in the area produce a geodetic signal detectable with InSAR? can we observe the groundwater exchange between the lake, aquifers, and the river with InSAR? are land use or surficial geology factors defining land deformation in the area?

GNSS observed motion for the continous stations in the study area. For all the figures: top is the east component, middle is the north component, and bottom is the up component. Map in the center shows the study area.

Study area - Ground vertical displacement and its relationship with injection and extraction of fluids in North Louisiana

PhD PROJECTS (working on publications)

Ground vertical displacement and its relationship with injection and extraction of fluids in North Louisiana: Extensive research has been done on the Louisiana-Texas border regarding the relationship between injection of fluids and earthquakes. We are using InSAR time series to see if there is any surface signal that can be related to the injection of fluids between 2016 and 2021. We presented some preliminary results on AGU 2022 and GAGE-SAGE 2023.

Quantifying Hydrological Seasonal Loading of faults with Interferometry in South Louisiana: We are using InSAR time series to estimate how seasonal changes in the Southern Hills Aquifer System are shown on the surface, and how larger storms and floodings such as the one that occurred in 2016 change the long and short term trends.

PAST PROJECTS

Variations in subsidence patterns in the Gulf of Mexico passive margin from Airborne-LiDAR data and Time Series InSAR: Baton Rouge Case Study: In this project, we use InSAR time series, LiDAR vertical differencing, and LiDAR-ICP to estimate land motion in the urban area of Baton Rouge. We validate the results using GNSS continuous stations in the area. We found: 1) After tying the results to a unique reference point all the tools show similar displacement. 2) LiDAR data can help to estimate 3D displacements, 3) Our results indicate that the cone of depression observed with previous groundwater models is observed on the surface as well.

You can check the full article and the dataset.

Schematic model of the extensional-contractional complex in southern Louisiana. References in paper

PUBLICATIONS

Hurtado-Pulido, C., Amer, R., Ebinger, C., & Holcomb, H. (2024). Variations in Subsidence Patterns in the Gulf of Mexico Passive Margin From Airborne-LiDAR Data and Time Series InSAR: Baton Rouge Case Study. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 129(2), e2023JF007406. doi:10.1029/2023JF007406
Hurtado-Pulido, C., (2023). InSAR and airborne LiDAR for monitoring slow vertical land motion. Nature Reviews Earth Environment. doi:10.1038/s43017-023-00442-9.
Hurtado-Pulido, C., Amer, R., Ebinger, C., Holcomb, H., (2023). Geodetic displacement data from Airborne-LiDAR data and Time Series InSAR: Baton Rouge Case Study. (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8187870
Hurtado-Pulido, C., (2017). Análisis de contaminación de PM2.5 a través de herramientas geográficas en la ciudad de Bogotá (Pollution analysis of PM2.5 using geographic tools in the city of Bogotá). Análisis Geográficos. 53, 121-141.

Contact me:

dchurtad[AT]purdue.edu

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