Microwave and optical monitoring of water leaks from commercial pipelines

Optical reflectance and microwave backscatter models (SAIL+PROSPECT and RT2) were used to identify optimal indices for detecting water leaks amongst a variety of different land cover types at different growth stages. Results suggest that red/near infared and red/middle infrared ratios and differences in L-band polarizations show potential for leak detection, preferably when vegetation density is low, surrounding soil surfaces are dry and leaks are prolonged. The modelled data were used to calibrate and test a semi-automated leak detection system using 200 channel HYMAP hyperspectral airborne data which included a high concentration of leaks. The results from this work suggest that remote sensing is both an effective and feasible tool for leak identification.