This paper is the result of geological survey engineering.

Objective Landslides pose a significant risk to major constructions and human safety in mountainous areas, and the early identification and monitoring of landslide has become an important way to prevent risk.

Methods This paper briefly introduces the basic principle of InSAR technology and its development history, and introduces the current research status of its application in landslide identification and monitoring.

Results The three types of landslide InSAR identification are regional, key sections and single landslide. InSAR monitoring of landslides mainly focuses on large landslides with significant risk, and highlights the research progress in monitoring method and early warning modeling. On this basis, the main challenges faced by InSAR technology in landslide identification and monitoring research at this stage are pointed out, including: the challenge of geometrical distortion in side−view imaging under complex terrain conditions, detecting large gradient deformation of landslides, atmospheric delays and vegetation penetration, etc. InSAR technology in landslide application still exists problems such as insufficient capacity of large−scale monitoring, low degree of automation of processing process, and insufficient degree of data analysis and mining.

Conclusions Accordingly, the future development direction of InSAR technology in landslide identification and monitoring is prospected. With the continuous improvement of the application level of InSAR technology, it will effectively promote the new leap in landslide disaster risk prevention.