The Multilayered Process of Radar Tomography

"There are not many above-ground structures that aren’t captured, accounted for and on view to the public online. So why isn’t this true for what’s below the surface too?" ask DGT Associates in a recent blog.

In the engineering industry, underground accidents occur more often than they should and can usually be traced back to the unknowns of the underground. In the USA alone, the 2019 DIRT report from the Common Ground Alliance estimated an all-time high of underground utility damage for that year at 532,000 events, costing the industry US$30 billion. The top cause of these events? Failure to properly locate underground assets and contact 811, the country's 'before-you-dig' service number that provides information about buried utility lines.

Imagine if we could locate everything underground, know exactly what the assets are, and account for them in records that can be shared across the industry, just like Google Maps and Google Earth. Well, thanks to radar tomography, we can come closer than ever before to achieving this goal.

Underground Data Acquisition

Radar tomography is a remote sensing method for data acquisition based on ground-penetrating radar (GPR), which is used in subsurface utility mapping work. The intent is to enable asset owners, designers and constructors to capture and subsequently visualize what’s underground, in precise detail. This blog focuses more specifically on how radar tomography methods, including data acquisition and analysis, enable such precise, detailed information on underground assets. It all boils down to one thing: content.

Read the full blog here.