Automatic Identification of Earth Rock Embankment Piping Hazards in Small and Medium Rivers Based on UAV Thermal Infrared and Visible Images

Abstract

Piping is a major factor contributing to river embankment breaches, particularly during flood season in small and medium rivers. To reduce the costs of earth rock embankment inspections, avoid the need for human inspectors and enable the quick and widespread detection of piping hazards, a UAV image-acquisition function was introduced in this study. Through the collection and analysis of thermal infrared and visible (TIR & V) images from several piping field simulation experiments, temperature increases, and diffusion centered on the piping point were discovered, so an automatic algorithm for piping identification was developed to capture this phenomenon. To verify the identification capabilities, the automatic identification algorithm was applied to detect potential piping hazards during the 2022 flooding of the Dingjialiu River, Liaoning, China. The algorithm successfully identified all five piping hazard locations, demonstrating its potential for detecting embankment piping.