Integration of modern remote sensing technologies for faster utility mapping and data extraction

The aim of the research presented in this paper is to analyze the benefits of integrating a mobile system capable of very fast, reliable and relatively inexpensive detection, identification and status examination of district heating network. Thermal imaging using unmanned aerial vehicle is used for pipeline route detection, inspection of validity of cadastral data and for locating possible leakages. Ground Penetrating Radar - GPR technology is used for control sampling of radargrams on specific locations of routes in order to achieve following: identification of the geometric characteristics of district heating pipelines and structure, prevention and registration of damage, as well as automated data extraction. The main part of the paper is dedicated to the algorithm for automated data extraction, based on artificial neural networks and pattern recognition. Radargrams of district heating pipeline were used as input data for the extraction algorithm, while the results are geometric characteristics such as pipe depth, distance between pipes and diameter. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.