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Remote Sensing Synergies for Port Infrastructure Monitoring and Condition Assessment
Abstract
Currently, there is an urgent need for developing cutting-edge port infrastructure monitoring solutions which exploit different multi-modal data towards timely optimal port management strategies and decision making. In fact, advanced monitoring applications allow for optimizing maintenance, rehabilitation and upgrade actions by assessing structural integrity of port structures which is affected by a vast variety of stressors such as aging, imposed loads, inadequate maintenance treatments, human-induced factors, natural hazards and the ever-changing climate. To this end, the purpose of this research is to enhance Remote Sensing (RS) port monitoring practices by investigating the potential of combining different types of RS methods to record and assess infrastructure condition. Therefore, two RS type of data: a) satellite imagery and b) aerial imagery from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), were considered for structural monitoring at a Greek port, namely Lavrio port, located at northeastern Attica, Greece. In particular, the applied monitoring program was focused on its windward rubble mound structure where temporal changes in the armour layer were detected. Significant parameters regarding spatial resolution and UAV flight characteristics were further investigated aiming at ensuring high quality data. The overall research indicated that RS synergies were proved to be a promising practice for acquiring advanced spatial and temporal information of port infrastructure condition.
... The current trends in the condition assessment of civil infrastructure systems involve Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) practices with non-contact-based sensors, such as remote sensing techniques [21]. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with high-resolution cameras have been employed as a form of remote sensing SHM of port structures [22][23][24]. UAV-driven SHM facilitates the addressing of the demanding challenges in (i) detecting and quantifying damages and failures and (ii) adapting the structural performance of infrastructure based on the identified system's vulnerabilities [25]. Given that vulnerability is a time-dependent concept [26], short-term and long-term SHM data acquired via periodic UAV flights assist in understanding and monitoring port vulnerabilities related to the structural condition of its infrastructure. ...
... Given that ports involve different types of structures [40], the structural condition of each structure was expressed in terms of its specific distresses/defects and failures related to its type of material, loading conditions, etc. The port facilities of the four fishing and leisure harbors of the Municipality of Thebes include concrete wharves and rubble-mound protection structures, thus requiring the investigation of defects and failures associated with these types of port structures [24,36]. ...
... The images captured during the UAV flights were analyzed with photogrammetry processes [41] via employing Agisoft software, version 1.4. The geospatial output of the photogrammetry analysis (i.e., the orthophotos of each fishing and leisure harbor illustrated in Figure 5) allowed for the mapping of the structural condition of the superstructure [23,24,42]. Within the context of this paper, the processing of the geospatial metadata (i.e., the orthophotos) was achieved using GIS tools. ...
Port vulnerability assessment is inherently linked to the delivery of sustainable and resilient infrastructure. Identifying the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of a port system allows for the minimization of disaster effects and optimization of maintenance, repair, or mitigation actions. The current port vulnerability assessment practices are built upon the examination of a diversity of indicators (parameters), including technical, physical, environmental, and socioeconomic pressures. From an engineering perspective, and given that ports are tangible infrastructure assets, their vulnerability is highly affected by the structural condition of their facilities. Hence, the present research seeks to enhance port vulnerability assessment by introducing structural condition parameters based on Structural Health Monitoring applications. The four fishing and leisure harbors of the Municipality of Thebes, located in central Greece, were used as a case study. Two approaches were considered for the harbors’ vulnerability assessments: (a) enabling and (b) disabling the use of the proposed parameters. In situ inspections were conducted with the employment of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for condition monitoring. UAV data were analyzed to generate geospatial images that allow for the mapping and detecting of defects and failures in port infrastructure. The overall research assists decision-makers in gaining valuable insight into the system’s vulnerabilities and prioritizing their interventions.
... Hence, regular monitoring of port areas and waterfront is mandatory to avoid erosions, damages, and, in the worst scenario, disasters. In this case, the possibility of trusting in regular, accurate monitoring is fundamental [7]. It allows effective and reliable evidence on the state of integrity of the structures, upon which basis decision makers and planners can create up-to-date executive plans [8,9] in a way that is cost-effective and proactive. ...
Three-dimensional survey is a key technology for documenting, monitoring, and analysing artifacts, buildings, and areas. Photogrammetry from drones makes it possible to survey and monitor impervious areas and, thanks to their manoeuvrability and reduced cost compared to airplane flights, to acquire data over time with regular missions, allowing constant monitoring. This paper presents a project to monitor a pier in a port area of the city of Naples that has undergone changes in shape over the years due to heavy storm surges. The project aims to create an accurate 4D database that will allow intelligent and targeted management of the area. The methodology followed a well-established pipeline: satellite images were compared to identify the changes in the coastline, then drone surveys were used to increase the accuracy of the data and, integrated with close-range photogrammetry, were used to obtain 3D models of the area for the 4D database. The project aims to perform a drone flight every year, at approximately the same time, to keep the monitoring of the pier up to date.
The 10th International Symposium Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: problems and measurements techniques was organized by CNR-IBE in collaboration with Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology , and Natural History Museum of the Mediterranean and under the patronage of University of Florence, University of Catania, Accademia dei Lincei, Accademia dei Geogofili, Italian Association of Physical Geography and Geomorphology, Tuscany Region, The North Tyrrhenian Sea Ports System Authority, Livorno Municipality and Livorno Province. This edition confirmed the Symposium as the international occasion to present the research carried out in recent years on the monitoring of the Mediterranean Coastal Areas and therefore as a space to present new proposals and promote actions for the protection of the marine and coastal environment. In the Symposium, Scholars had illustrated their activities and exchanged innovative proposals, with common aims to promote actions to preserve coastal marine environment. In this 10th edition, in fact, we had more than 130 participants from 16 countries; this is a sign of great success and willingness to be presence in Livorno to discuss problems and propose solutions for the Mediterranean coastal areas.
Seaport infrastructure monitoring promotes the development of an effective management system that ensures functionality, structural capacity and safety. Monitoring approaches are considered to be a useful tool in an attempt to deal with growing global trends, such as seaport “smartness”, or with challenging issues such as climate crisis, while enhancing the financial performance and the capability of a seaport to remain competitive in the trading environment. Therefore, the present paper proposes a framework for integrating monitoring processes and relevant data analyses to improve seaport smartness and adaptive capacity to climate change. The framework is applied at the seaport of Lavrio, located in central-eastern Greece, where in-situ inspection and condition assessment is performed through utilizing modern monitoring techniques. The research outlines the significance of establishing a robust monitoring system such as the one hereto described to minimize the impact of natural hazards, perform suitable maintenance strategies and optimize the required periodic control of seaport facilities.
Deterioration of bridge infrastructure is a serious concern to transport and government agencies as it declines serviceability and reliability of bridges and jeopardizes public safety. Maintenance and rehabilitation needs of bridge infrastructure are periodically monitored and assessed, typically every two years. Existing inspection techniques, such as visual inspection, are time-consuming, subjective, and often incomplete. Non-destructive testing (NDT) using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been gaining momentum for bridge monitoring in the recent years, particularly due to enhanced accessibility and cost efficiency, deterrence of traffic closure, and improved safety during inspection. The primary objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive review of the application of UAVs in bridge condition monitoring, used in conjunction with remote sensing technologies. Remote sensing technologies such as visual imagery, infrared thermography, LiDAR, and other sensors, integrated with UAVs for data acquisition are analyzed in depth. This study compiled sixty-five journal and conference papers published in the last two decades scrutinizing NDT-based UAV systems. In addition to comparison of stand-alone and integrated NDT-UAV methods, the facilitation of bridge inspection using UAVs is thoroughly discussed in the present article in terms of ease of use, accuracy, cost-efficiency, employed data collection tools, and simulation platforms. Additionally, challenges and future perspectives of the reviewed UAV-NDT technologies are highlighted.
Over the last decade, particular interest in using state-of-the-art emerging technologies for inspection, assessment, and management of civil infrastructures has remarkably increased. Advanced technologies, such as laser scanners, have become a suitable alternative for labor intensive, expensive, and unsafe traditional inspection and maintenance methods, which encourage the increasing use of this technology in construction industry, especially in bridges. This paper aims to provide a thorough mixed scientometric and state-of-the-art review on the application of terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) in bridge engineering and explore investigations and recommendations of researchers in this area. Following the review, more than 1500 research publications were collected, investigated and analyzed through a twofold literature search published within the last decade from 2010 to 2020. Research trends, consisting of dominated sub-fields, co-occurrence of keywords, network of researchers and their institutions, along with the interaction of research networks, were quantitatively analyzed. Moreover, based on the collected papers, application of TLS in bridge engineering and asset management was reviewed according to four categories including (1) generation of 3D model, (2) quality inspection, (3) structural assessment, and (4) bridge information modeling (BrIM). Finally, the paper identifies the current research gaps, future directions obtained from the quantitative analysis, and in-depth discussions of the collected papers in this area.
Ports have been built or expanded in a number of countries to cater to increasing maritime trade in the 21st century. Port expansion is associated with economic and environmental impacts on the local and regional scales, and these impacts can be studied using remote sensing. The present study presents new results from multi-source remote sensing monitoring of the Ajmr Port expansion. An analysis of land use and vegetation coverage at the port is used to monitor the impact of port construction on the local ecology, while changes in roads, buildings, and lights are used to monitor the economic impact. The results show that: (1) After nine years of expansion, the port area has gradually expanded from the central to the southern coastal area, with an increase of 21.68 hectares during the expansion period. After the expansion, the area of builidings and construction in the study area increased significantly, while the area of water and green areas decreased significantly, indicating that the port construction changed the land use structure of the area. (2) From the perspective of vegetation coverage, the vegetation coverage within 5 km from the port is in good condition. After 9 years, the vegetation coverage in the region between 0.6 and 1 increased from 43.71% to 44.25%, reflecting the higher overall greening level in the region. (3) By analyzing the increase in roads and buildings, it can be seen that the port’s comprehensive transportation capacity has improved, the population of the region has increased significantly. As the scale of construction has been continuously expanded , the prosperity as increased. (4) By analyzing the changes in the light index, the light data from the northeast to the southwest in the region is very obvious, and it is clearly located along the coast, indicating that the economic development of the coastal zone is faster than other regions, and the coastal region has promoted the development of the inland region.
Many European infrastructures dating back to ’50 and ’60 of the last century like bridges and viaducts are approaching the end of their design lifetime. In most European countries costs related to maintenance of infrastructures reach a quite high percentage of the construction budget and additional costs in terms of traffic delay are due to downtime related to the inspection and maintenance interventions. In the last 30 years, the rate of deterioration of these infrastructures has increased due to increased traffic loads, climate change related events and man-made hazards. A sustainable approach to infrastructures management over their lifecycle plays a key role in reducing the impact of mobility on safety (over 50 000 fatalities in EU per year) and the impact of greenhouse gases emission related to fossil fuels. The events related to the recent collapse of the Morandi bridge in Italy tragically highlighted the sheer need to improve resilience of aging transport infrastructures, in order to increase the safety for people and goods and to reduce losses of functionality and the related consequences. In this focus Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is one of the key strategies with a great potential to provide a new approach to performance assessment and maintenance over the life cycle for an efficient, safe, resilient and sustainable management of the infrastructures. In this paper research efforts, needs and challenges in terms of performance monitoring, assessment and standardization are described and discussed.
Considering 91 countries with seaports, this study conducted an empirical inquiry into the broader economic contribution of seaborne trade, from a port infrastructure quality and logistics performance perspective. Investment in quality improvement of port infrastructure and its contribution to economy are often questioned by politicians, investors and general public. A structural equation model (SEM) is used to provide empirical evidence of significant economic impacts of port infrastructure quality and logistics performance. Furthermore, analysis of a multi-group SEM is performed by dividing countries into developed and developing economy groups. The results reveal that it is vital for developing countries to continuously improve the quality of port infrastructure as it contributes to better logistics performance, leading to higher seaborne trade, yielding higher economic growth. However, this association weakens as the developing countries become richer.
Over the past few years, the application of camera-equipped Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for visually monitoring construction and operation of buildings, bridges, and other types of civil infrastructure systems has exponentially grown. These platforms can frequently survey construction sites, monitor work-in-progress, create documents for safety, and inspect existing structures, particularly for hard-to-reach areas. The purpose of this paper is to provide a concise review of the most recent methods that streamline collection, analysis, visualization, and communication of the visual data captured from these platforms, with and without using Building Information Models (BIM) as a priori information. Specifically, the most relevant works from Civil Engineering, Computer Vision, and Robotics communities are presented and compared in terms of their potential to lead to automatic construction monitoring and civil infrastructure condition assessment.
Monitoring of breakwaters is a key aspect to prevent failures that affect the safety and quality of service. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry gives low-cost and accurate geometric data, flexibility, and productivity to perform aerial surveys, although the weather conditions restrict flights for wind speeds above 50 km/h (the Mikrokopter system). Despite the promising potential of these systems, its ability to monitor movement of cubes in breakwaters has not yet proven. The UAV photogrammetry is tested for the research reported in this paper in the Baiona breakwaters (northwestern Spain). A SD of 0.026 m is obtained from the point cloud. The detection limit of the system is evaluated and rotations lower than 1° could be detected. This value is calculated from the measurable differences in height values after the virtual rotation of a single cube. The system provides the exact position where the movement of the cube is produced and can be easily integrated with geographic information system–based management systems.
The main objective of this article is quality assessment of pansharpening fusion methods. Pansharpening is a fusion technique to combine a panchromatic image of high spatial resolution with multispectral image data of lower spatial resolution to obtain a high-resolution multispectral image. During this process, the significant spectral characteristics of the multispectral data should be preserved. For images acquired at the same time by the same sensor, most algorithms for pansharpening provide very good results, i.e. they retain the high spatial resolution of the panchromatic image and the spectral information from the multispectral image (single-sensor, single-date fusion). For multi-date, multi-sensor fusion, however, these techniques can still create spatially enhanced data sets, but usually at the expense of the spectral consistency. In this study, eight different methods are compared for image fusion to show their ability to fuse multitemporal and multi-sensor image data. A series of eight multitemporal multispectral remote sensing images is fused with a panchromatic Ikonos image and a TerraSAR-X radar image as a panchromatic substitute. The fused images are visually and quantitatively analysed for spectral characteristics preservation and spatial improvement. It can not only be proven that the Ehlers fusion is superior to all other tested algorithms, it is also the only method that guarantees excellent colour preservation for all dates and sensors used in this study.
The present project addresses a problem related to the erosion effects on a breakwater barrier due to waves which leads to its degradation and that may eventually lead to lack of functionality of the structure. In the present case, the breakwater acts as a physical barrier between the Atlantic Ocean and the cargo Harbour of Leixões, in Matosinhos, Portugal, justifying the needs of health monitoring of the barrier.
To monitor this structure, with a length of roughly 700 m, the need of a fast data acquisition system led to the choice of imaging techniques which allow for a fast acquisition of a diversified data set. The images were acquired using a high-resolution camera attached to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), enabling a faster and more automated procedure that leads to the systematization of the process, while being compatible with the difficult accessibility of the structure, which is surrounded by sea waves. Point clouds corresponding to the breakwater’s geometry were then obtained from the set of the UAV aerial images using photogrammetry.
Two image acquisition and processing operations were performed three months apart in order to compare the point clouds acquired in the different instances and identify possible changes in the geometric configuration of the breakwater. By registering the two point clouds and computing the distance between them, it was possible to show that some movement within the structure occurred between the two points in time.
This volume provides international case studies of practical and advanced methods using satellite images integrated with other airborne, drone images and field data to monitor infrastructure. The book is timely, as infrastructure spending by national governments is increasing and robust monitoring techniques are needed to keep pace with climate change impacts affecting infrastructures globally. The expert international contributions that comprise the book provide examples of advanced methods using InSAR, high-resolution optical and radar images, LIDAR, UAV, geophysical techniques and their applications to civil infrastructure. The case studies focus on high-resolution, rapid time-series radar interferometry to monitor highways, railways, pipelines, bridges, urban, and water conveyance infrastructures. Other case studies use optical and radar images to characterize urban infrastructure and monitor damages from floods, oil spills and conflicts. The case studies are global focusing in infrastructure projects in Canada, Dominica Guyana, India Italy, Syria Taiwan, United States and the United Kingdom. This compilation of selected case studies will provide useful guidelines to the civil infrastructure characterization and monitoring communities. The book will be of interest to infrastructure consultants and professionals, scientific communities in earth observation and advanced imaging methods, and researchers and professors in earth sciences, climate change, and civil and geoengineering.
Monitoring-enhanced resilience in transport management is an emerging area which has not been fully explored. Digital technologies have the potential to provide rapid resilience assessments in a quantifiable and engineered manner for transport infrastructure, which is exposed to multiple natural and human-induced hazards and diverse loads throughout their life-cycle. Physical damage and disruption of networks and interdependent systems may cause tremendous socioeconomic impact, affecting world economies and societies. Nowadays, transport infrastructure stakeholders have shifted the requirements in risk and resilience assessment. The expectation is that risk is estimated efficiently, almost in real-time with high accuracy, aiming at maximising the functionality and minimising losses. Nevertheless, no integrated framework exists for quantifying resilience to diverse hazards, based on structural and functionality monitoring (SHFM) data which is the main objective of this paper. Monitoring systems have been used widely in transport infrastructure and have been studied extensively in the literature. This data can facilitate prognosis of the asset condition and the functionality of the network, informing computer-based asset and traffic models, which can result in actionable performance indicators for diagnosis and for defining risk and loss expediently and accurately. Evidence exists that SHFM is an enabler of resilience, however, strategies are absent in support of monitoring-based resilience assessment in transport infrastructure management. In response to the above challenge, this paper puts forward for the first time in the international literature, a roadmap for monitoring-based quantification of resilience for transport infrastructure, depending on a comprehensive state-of-the-art review. It is a holistic asset management roadmap, which identifies the interactions among the procedures, i.e. design, monitoring, risk assessment and quantification of resilience to multiple hazards. Monitoring is embraced as a vital component, providing expedient feedback for recovery measures, accelerating decision-making for adaptation of changing ecosystems and built environments, utilising emerging technologies, to continuously deliver safer and resilient transport infrastructure.
A space-borne bridge displacement monitoring technology was demonstrated on a major highway bridge in Cornwall (Ontario, Canada) over a 15-month period. Two major challenges had to be overcome and solutions were identified and implemented. The first challenge related to the proper selection and analysis of satellite imagery to optimize the number and signal quality of point targets on the bridge for adequate movement detection and analysis. The second challenge was the comparison and validation of independent sets of data having different measurement methods, reference baselines, and distributions in space and time. The key findings include: (i) the regression analysis of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data from the satellite produced the best coherence when fitted against the following three independent variables: height, ambient temperature, and time; (ii) the bridge railings appeared to be excellent natural reflectors with their sharp edges and regular spacing along the bridge, showing a return of over 3,000 clear point targets to the satellite; (iii) the InSAR displacement thermal sensitivity data was found to compare very well to numerical modeling thermal data. The results show great promise and value in applying satellite-based technology for the remote monitoring of highway and railway bridges to alert engineers of excessive movement and, in turn, will help optimize preventive maintenance management, extend structural lifespan, minimize traffic disruptions due to late repair, and ensure structural integrity.
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