In-site experimental study on the effects of infrared thermal imaging technology on levee leakage detection

Excessive seepage significantly affects the stability of levees during flood seasons. Recently, infrared thermal imaging technology has been proposed to detect the seepage leakage of levees for its simplicity, high efficiency and non-contact. However, previous studies mainly focused on theoretical and laboratory tests to verify its effect, which involve many assumptions and simplification. This paper aims to study the practical application effects of infrared thermal imaging technology on levee leakage detection. A typical embankment in Xiangyin County, Hunan Province is selected as the studied area, where a specific point containing water is considered as the potential leakage point. Then, DJI M300RTK UAV equipped with Zenith H20T gimbal is adopted to collect the visible and infrared images of the embankment's leaking point. The visible and infrared image data collected at different times and at different measurement heights are analyzed to investigate the detection accuracy of infrared thermal imaging technology. Results show that the infrared thermal imaging technology can accurately identify the potential seepage leakage point of levees. Compared with the visible light recognition method, the infrared thermal imaging technology can identify the location and scope of leakage hazards more clearly and accurately at night. During the daytime, infrared detection is less effective than visible light method. Moreover, the measurement altitude between the drone and the target leakage points significantly affects the detection accuracy of infrared thermal imaging technology.