Automated land use and vegetation monitoring to enable efficient management of Britain´s off track railway assets

Britain´s railway network extends to almost 40,000 hectares of land enclosed by approximately 30,000 kilometres of boundary. The off track management of this estate includes provision of boundary measures to prevent unauthorised access by people or animals together with the risk assessment of vegetation, specifically trees, to reduce the risk to safe and efficient rail operations. Over 2.5 million trees have been identified on Network Rail´s infrastructure and arboricultural industry good practice would see these risk assessed once every 5 years as a minimum. LiDAR imagery has demonstrated the potential for recording vegetation and planning required operations based upon the encroachment and volume of vegetation in a particular area. Remote sensing techniques will not only enable specific trees to be targeted based on their height and ability to reach a target if they fail, but also owners of tall trees out with the Network Rail boundary can also be identified. These same remote sensing technologies can assist with the classification of land use adjacent to the operational railway, a fundamental feature of risk assessments used to determine the type of boundary measures required at the side of the railway to meet legal obligations.