top of page
Infrastructure Health
Pavement Health
The stability of roads is critical to their function. Deterioration from vehicle use corrodes pavement, and damage to roads leads to structural deficiency.
In a case study in Venice, a remote sensor was able to identify the extent of pavement degradation. The multispectral sensors were able to oversee how much damage, if any, had been done to segments of asphalt from continued use of the road.
Remote sensors are capable of identifying changes to the road's surface, such as vulnerability to the development of potholes, whose impacts are difficult to discern from simple viewing. Digital models are created, which are useful for policymakers and engineers to analyze damage to roads.
A Pavement Condition Index provides a metric for analyzing the soundness of roads, and can be used in concert with analysis of hyperspectral imagery. Santa Barbara County, California, has developed an integrated approach that combines the PCI, multispectral imagery, and ArcGIS to create a database of indexed roads.
As demand for goods and passenger transportation grows, so too does strain on the physical plant of transport corridor. Remote sensing has utility in monitoring for damage to infrastructure, ensuring that transportation networks are safe and efficient.
The use of trucks contributes to substantial wear-and-tear to roads; one 18-wheel truck has equivalent effects as thousands of automobiles.
RS and GIS technologies combine to enable greater clarity in ranking roads on a Pavement Condition Index, as seen above.
Aerial RS has the advantage of
accessing regions which pose trouble for personal surveying. Mountainous regions in particular present challenges for safety analysis.
Railroad corridors that cross mountainous terrain have been observed through remote sensing. In 2012, Canadian railroads began to be scanned with both terrestrial and airborne sensors. The aerial scanners demonstrated effectiveness in scaling, and proved useful in identifying
potential hazards from rocks falling onto the right of way.
Safer Inspection
bottom of page