Assessment of Airborne Lidar and Imaging Technology for Pipeline Mapping and Safety Applications

Safe pipeline transportation of energy resources is a major concern for the public. Since a pipeline has been built and buried, geologic hazards, corrosions and third-party damages all pose cumulative internal and environmental risks to the pipeline’s integrity. As today’s pipeline engineering and operation become more reliant on geospatial data for safety in the pipeline’s life cycle of design, construction, maintenance, and emergency response of pipeline facilities, the rapid and cost-affordable acquisition of terrain data along the pipeline corridor becomes increasingly critical. This paper addresses the use of airborne lidar and imaging technology for pipeline mapping and pipeline safety applications. We aim to improve the safe and secure transmission of gas and liquid energy in pipeline system by assessing the potential benefits of airborne lidar technology. It is concluded that airborne lidar could be an effective technology to assist pipeline risk management to assure safety in design, construction, operation, maintenance, and emergency response of pipeline facilities. Industrial and scientific advances in lidar systems and data processing techniques are opening new technological opportunities to develop an increased capability to accomplish the pipeline mapping and safety applications. The potential integration with other imaging sensors is expected to put lidar data acquisition and application on a new level with far reaching prospects.