Project Summary
The ECRA project aims to assess the feasibility of remotely obtaining crucial data for monitoring railway or road embankment failure risk caused by weather and climate change. The goal is to demonstrate proof of concept in a relevant environment using Un-crewed Aerial Systems (UAS) drone-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The project will conduct a field trial to determine if the data collected on deformation, moisture content, vegetation biomass/health, and soil type can effectively support the assessment of high slope stability risk areas.
Project Achievements
The project focussed on the integration of multiband synthetic aperture radar sensing with a drone platform, flight control and management to optimise survey, field trials at a number of locations and data processing to achieve an assessment of the soil moisture (a key factor in slope failure). Key achievements included gaining the first UK Ofcom permit for trial use and application of the technology, first commercial trials of the technology within the UK and first use of the technology within a network rail railway embankment site. The project was successful in undertaking multiple field trials at three separate locations, including with Network Rail. The outcome of the trials clearly indicated reasonable assessment of soil moisture with reference to ground truthing. The complex nature of the technology and data will require a range of further tests and trials to build data, credibility and workflow. Collaboration was extended to include soil science components with Cranfield University, SAR interpretation and workflow with Stirling University and optimising flight integration with Radaz.
Conclusions
The project was particularly successful in integrating and testing an emerging technology as well as demonstrating how this can be used and applied to support transport resilience to severe weather and flooding, particularly with respect to railway embankment slope risk assessment. The field trials demonstrated that it is possible to survey and assess soil moisture and map this to support slope stability risk assessment. The field trial data also highlighted outcomes of topography, biomass/vegetation and unconformities (man-made objects etc) are factors which can also impact slope risk.
Next Steps
The research has achieved its proof of concept and has met the core project objectives, demonstrated in a live field environment. The next key steps are to undertake further field trial work to assess repeatability, determine limitations and optimise workflow to provide credibility and viability toa commercial market. The technology has already been funded for a further stage of field trials in collaboration with Cranfield University with a sequence of further use researchin application stage. We would hope that the work can be extended with Network Rail with a more detailed assessment of the outcomes with a range of ground truthed field sites where slope stability is an issue.
