MUD® SAR Prioritizes Geohazards

Slopes don’t always show signs of distress at the surface and can fail with limited, if any, warning. Visual inspections provide some but very limited information on what’s happening in the subsurface that may be the root cause of slope instability and potential slope failure.

Detect land condition anomalies associated with catastrophic failures

Infrastructure and transportation operators need a reliable and remote system that connects what's happening at the surface with the subsurface risks and advanced warning to take action.

MUD® SAR remote monitoring technology uses machine learning to automatically classify anomalous land condition variables and maps each to detect zones with multiple and overlapping variables. Typical anomalies are:

• areas of change

• land slope--higher slopes present greater likelihood of downslope movement

• underground water courses or water bodies--can cause erosion or structural instability

• localized, patterned change

• non-localized, vertical change

Prioritize geohazards with remote satellite monitoring

Auracle works with its clients to identify anomalies that could impact the safety and sustainability of their earthworks network. A classification matrix prioritizes risks at local, regional, and network-wide levels with priorities for the response needed, from immediate to non-urgent. Operators can allocate valuable resources to investigate and mitigate specific risk zones.

For example, in a rail network, geohazards that require an urgent response are those that have overlapping anomalies and evidence of patterned movement:

• increases in underground water saturation directly impacts the rail or its ballast

• within slope range greater than 0 and less than 5 degrees

• where water levels in subsurface water courses are increased

Other land conditions in a rail network may not require an immediate response time based on these anomalies:

• within 200m of a watercourse

• within 200m of other infrastructure

• land slope range greater than 0 and less than 22.5 degrees

• no evidence of patterns of anomalous, localized vertical change

What spatial analytics are provided?

The client receives a map and detailed geospatial analytics that inform operators of the anomalies:

• its exact location (x y coordinates)

• its slope (in degrees)

• its distance from the rail grade (in meters)

• a site description, including land cover type, elevation above or below rail grade and the amount of vertical change (in mm)

Whether the movement is constant, accelerating or responding to intervention, MUD® SAR detects and measures type, rate, direction and pattern of ground displacement and subsurface change within the land surrounding the asset and its network.

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