NASA develops new technique to identify deteriorating infrastructure from space

LOS ANGELES: NASA scientists recently developed a new technique for evaluating satellite data that can disclose delicate structural changes, according to a release of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

According to JPL, even the subtle changes that are not visible to the naked eye, may indicate a deteriorating condition of a bridge.

A team of scientists from NASA, the University of Bath in England and the Italian Space Agency used synthetic aperture radar measurements from several different satellites and reference points to map structural changes in theMorandi bridge in Genoa, Italy, from 2003to the point of its collapsein August 2018, which killed dozens of people.

Using a new process, they were able to identify millimeter-size changes to the bridge over time that would not have been detected by the standard processing approaches applied to space borne synthetic aperture radar observations.

They also noted that numerous parts of the bridge showed a more substantial increase in structural changes between March 2017 and August 2018 – a hidden warning that at least part of the bridge may have become structurally unsound was released according to JPL.

“This is about developing a new technique that can assist in the characterisation of the health of bridges and other infrastructure,” said Pietro Milillo, scientist, JPL radar.

“We couldn’t have forecasted this particular collapse because standard assessment techniques available at the time couldn’t detect what we can see now. But going forward, this technique, combined with techniques already in use, has the potential to do a lot of good.”

He said that the new technique cannot solve the entire problem of structural safety, but can add a new tool to the standard procedures to better support maintenance considerations.