Mapping urban underground utility infrastructure with GPR

27 June 2016 Geoff Zeiss

About three years ago at the GI_Forum Symposium in Salzburg, Paolo Viskanic of R3 GIS gave a presentation about a ground breaking project to map underground infrastructure that had been underway in the Region of Lombardy in Northern Italy.  This project was kicked off by a pilot project to map all underground infrastructure on the site of Expo Milano in preparation for the 2015 event in Milan.  

What I didn’t realize at the time was that this was a joint presentation with Enrico Boi of IDS GeoRadar.  Enrico, who was responsible for the ground penetrating radar (GPR) scanning part of the project, wasn’t able to make it to Salzburg.  Paulo explained to me repeatedly that I should talk to his co-author from IDS about the GPR scanning, but somehow I never managed to until last week.  At the annual Hexagon conference HxGN Live in Anaheim I finally met Enrico.  ( At HxGN Enrico gave a fascinating presentation on the application of radar to detect and monitor slope instabilities. )

In recent years IDS Georadar has been in the forefront of technical development in GPR and the Milan pilot project was a ground breaking project that demonstrated the benefits of using GPR to map underground utility infrastructure in an urban environment.  For the Milan pilot project all underground infrastructure in the project area (230 000 square meters) including electric power, water, sewers, gas, district heating, street lighting, and telecommunication were mapped both from historical records and using IDS’s ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology.    A data model for underground infrastructure was developed for the different types of underground networks based on the Italian DigitPA and the INSPIRE US utility standards.

Milan underground 4-800wiComparison of GPR scan with historical records

The most fascinating part of the project was the comparison of the historical records with the results captured by GPR.  Enrico’s analysis revealed significant discrepancies in the historic record including thousands of meters of unknown infrastructure.  For the known infrastructure the average error in geolocation was about 30%, but much larger errors of up to 100% were also recorded.  The conclusion is that even in Europe the record of underground infrastructure can be highly unreliable. 
 
In addition that GPR could identify previously unknown underground infrastructure can provide financial motivation for municipalities to invest in underground scanning because utilities are taxed by municipalities based on the total infrastructure the utilities maintain within city limits.

Return-on-investment

Milan underground 2-320wiThe other ground breaking part of the pilot project was an economic analysis of the costs and benefits of applying GPR to detect the location of underground infrastructure.  The analysis estimated that the return on investment is about €16 for every euro invested in improving the reliability information of underground infrastructure.  For comparison the ROI in the United States has been estimated to range from up to $21 for every dollar invested. The analysis also emphasized other important, but non-quantifiable benefits including better safety for both workers and the public as well as fewer traffic disruptions.
 
Hexagon has worked with IDS for years and is in the process of acquiring IDS’ GeoRadar division, which developed and manufactures the Stream EM array among other radar technology. 
Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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