Technology from high above reveals geohazards at and below ground level for pipeline integrity program

Screening and Mapping Assessment for Pipeline Integrity

If pipelines are in the news, safety is often the topic. So, when our client wanted to know and understand potential geohazards along a 290-kilometer pipeline route in Ontario—they called upon our remote sensing experience to conduct a geohazards screening and mapping assessment. For this project, geotechnical and hydrotechnical hazards, collectively referred to as geohazards, included landslides, erosion (gully) sites, karst (soluble rock formations), and watercourse crossings.

Our team applied GroundWatch, which leverages satellite based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), along with high-resolution imagery, and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) derived bare-earth digital elevation models to identify, delineate, and prioritize potential geohazards along the pipeline’s alignments.

Using this mix of earth observation technologies, we identified over 400 potential geohazard locations along the pipeline alignments, and all high priority sites were recommended for field inspection.