Satellite Radar Data Analysis for Change Detection of Rural and Urban Railways

Changes in vertical and horizontal alignment of railways impact service continuity, efficacy and safety of operations and may lead to cascading failures if they go undetected. Conventional methods (e.g. Global Positioning System (GPS), surveying, dedicated inspection and measurement vehicles) are expensive, disrupt operations, do not provide network-wide monitoring and, typically do not monitor the rate of change over time and, thus, are not predictive by themselves. The research team proposes to implement satellite radar image processing techniques for the intelligent monitoring of railway right of way and enable the change detection at critical areas, such as bridge approaches, grade crossings, or other areas with a history of geotechnical failures along the track. A web-based application will be developed for data management and visualization. The proposed approach employs Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR), Persistent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PS-InSAR), and Coherence Change Detection (CCD) methodologies in radar signal processing. The proposed technology applies to (1) network-wide real-time monitoring and detection, (2) on-demand real-time monitoring of high-risk areas, and (3) accident investigation. The proposed work leverages on the findings and experience gained in current studies at University of South Carolina (UofSC) that developed and demonstrated the process in detecting moisture changes in the railway track and slopes and measuring small- and large-scale deformations in millimeter resolution.

• Record URL:
  https://www.utrgv.edu/railwaysafety/_files/documents/research/exhibit-d_utcrs_usc_satellite_radar_data_analysis_2023.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Partners for this project are the University of Nebraska - Lincoln (UNL), University of California Riverside (UCR), University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $82271
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348340

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

  502 Byrnes Building
  Columbia, SC  United States  29208
• Managing Organizations:

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

  502 Byrnes Building
  Columbia, SC  United States  29208
• Project Managers:

  Stearns, Amy

• Performing Organizations:

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

  502 Byrnes Building
  Columbia, SC  United States  29208
• Principal Investigators:

  Rizos, Dimitris

  Sutton, Michael

• Start Date: 20230601
• Expected Completion Date: 20240831
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alignment; Monitoring; Radar images; Railroad safety; Railroad tracks; Web applications
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Maintenance and Preservation; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01898081
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University Transportation Center for Railway Safety
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348340
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Oct 31 2023 9:36PM