Advanced Geospatial Analytics Add Subsurface Intelligence

To most people, the subsurface is a complex, hidden sphere that is challenging and costly to investigate. Yet advanced geospatial analytics make it possible to discover that everything really is connected to everything. Geospatial technology unlocks the relationship between ground and structural displacement with subsurface conditions. Geospatial risks in the surface and subsurface don’t have to remain segregated, as if one doesn’t impact the other. Shifting our mindset to a new paradigm of subsurface intelligence enables deeper risk analyses that protect critical infrastructure and assets better than ever before. 

Unlock the Relationship between the Surface and Subsurface

The surface, subsurface and underwater are connected. When we focus satellite monitoring efforts on ground and surface structural movement only we miss the root causes in the subsurface that can be linked to what’s happening at the surface. When structural displacement or flooding is seen at the surface, early mitigation opportunities are lost and failure may be imminent.  

The subsurface is complex, composed of both man-made infrastructure such as utilities, cables and footings and natural features such as geology, water and geotechnical hazards. But the subsurface doesn’t have to be a hidden sphere. The advent of subsurface digital twin technology revolutionizes the way we visualize what’s happening under the Earth’s surface and underwater. Auracle’s MUD® (Mapped Underworld Dimension) SAR is an advanced satellite radar technology designed to visualize the subsurface and underwater to assess, model, and monitor potential geohazards beneath the Earth's surface.

Like an X-ray of the Earth, MUD® SAR machine-learning algorithms penetrate ground surface layers including deep vegetation, snow, ice, overburden and even water, to reveal underlying geohazard risks, utilities, water courses, soil saturation, ground infrastructure, and underground voids to depths of 100 meters (325 feet.) It is a remote displacement monitoring tool that detects where, when and how much the ground and underground has moved, under a structure or over an entire site, throughout an asset’s geotechnical lifecycle.

Solve Ground Structural Movement Mysteries

Natural underground water systems (blue lines) were detected flowing through a large industrial site, during construction, including under the facility that impacted the stability of piling placement.

Construction at a large LNG site was disrupted when 85 000 subsurface pilings continued to move +/- 11 inches vertically, during placement, despite costly remediation efforts. This was a coastal site affected by the tide; the pilings moved as subsurface water flowed in and out, in relation to tidal variations.  MUD® SAR located subsurface watercourses within the entire construction site. With MUD® SAR’s high-resolution satellite data and with the link between naturally-occurring underground water and soil carrying capacity, the engineers built underground retaining walls that successfully blocked the tidal water flow and secured the pilings’ placements.

Geospatial analytics add subsurface intelligence to surface ground movement data to explain how unseen conditions like underground water flow impacts surface soil carrying capacity over an entire industrial site.

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