Stantec Utilizes Airbusʼ Pléiades Neo HD15 Product to Detect Hazardous Pipeline Right-of-Way Encroachments

Challenge

Solution & results

Organisations involved

Challenge

Stantec needed to enhance their existing pipeline monitoring service, PipeWATCH, to detect physical encroachments by third parties along a high-pressure underground pipeline in a densely populated area of Southern Ontario.

Traditional monitoring focused on detecting leaks and vegetation overgrowth, but the client needed a solution to identify unauthorized activities—like construction or excavation—that posed serious safety risks. Given the complexity and potential hazards involved, including the need to monitor thousands of kilometers with fine detail, Stantec required a high-resolution, scalable imaging solution capable of identifying both existing and emerging threats.

The yellow circle in this Pléiades Neo HD15 product draws attention to construction equipment. The black dotted line encompasses an area showing the equipment's track marks. Red lines are used to denote the route of the underground pipeline

Solution & results

Stantec’s solution involved integrating Airbus’ Pléiades Neo HD15 high-resolution satellite imagery into its PipeWATCH service to monitor pipeline right-of-way encroachments with enhanced detail and accuracy. Using imagery delivered via the SkyWatch platform, Stantec implemented automated change detection to identify unauthorized activities, such as construction or farming, within the pipeline corridor and its buffer zones. The results were highly effective: numerous encroachments were detected, including a serious incident involving earthmoving equipment, which was addressed immediately to prevent potential disaster.

This success led to the expansion of encroachment monitoring as a permanent feature of PipeWATCH.

Organisation involved

Stantec empowers clients, people, and communities to rise to the worldʼs greatest challenges at a time when the world faces more unprecedented concerns than ever before.

We are a global leader in sustainable engineering, architecture, and environmental consul-ting. Our professionals deliver the expertise, technology, and innovation communities need to manage aging infrastructure, demographic and population changes, the energy transition, and more.

Stantec trades on the TSX and the NYSE un-der the symbol STN. Visit us at Stantec.com or find us on social media.

SkyWatch is on a mission to make remote sensing data more accessible and usable for businesses, researchers, and developers. The SkyWatch platform simplifies how organizations discover, acquire, and use this valuable data through an ecosystem of applications built for different user needs.

By providing seamless, scalable, and cost-effective access to satellite imagery, SkyWatch is enabling businesses and professionals to harness the power of space-based intelligence like never before.

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