Drone Leak Investigation · Commercial & Parks
Irrigation System Leak Mapping by drone.
Golf courses, sports fields, parks, and agricultural operations — buried irrigation leaks, broken laterals, and chronic overwatering zones mapped across the whole property in one flight instead of weeks of walking.
Free phone consult · No pressure · Mon–Sat 8am–6pm PT
Why owners and operators choose it
- Whole-property moisture picture in a single flight
- Separates broken pipe from scheduling problems
- Cuts water bills where rates and restrictions bite
- Vegetation stress reveals failures before turf dies
Built for
How the investigation runs
- 1
System review
Irrigation as-builts, zone maps, and the operator's trouble list focus the survey — which zones run long, where pressure sags, what the water bill says.
- 2
Property flight
Thermal and visual capture across the full irrigated area in the right moisture-contrast window — typically pre-dawn or evening, after a defined dry-down period.
- 3
Moisture anomaly mapping
Saturated zones that should be dry (leaks, stuck valves, broken laterals) and dry zones that should be wet (blockages, failed heads) are mapped and keyed to the zone-and-valve layout.
- 4
Operator report
A property-wide moisture map with ranked repair targets — the superintendent or parks crew fixes from a list, not from symptoms.
Aerial screening + ground confirmation, one company
The aerial survey ranks where the problems are; Leak.ca's ground crews — the same team pinpointing BC leaks since 1999 — confirm them with acoustic correlation, moisture probing, and flood testing where the finding warrants it. One accountable report from first flight to repair-ready coordinates, instead of two vendors pointing at each other.
Frequently asked
How does aerial imaging find buried irrigation leaks?
Two signals, flown together. Thermal shows soil moisture directly — a leaking lateral keeps its surrounding soil saturated and thermally distinct through dry-down periods. Visual imagery shows the vegetation response — the lush stripe over a leak, the stressed patch behind a blockage. Where both signals agree, confidence is high enough to dig.
How much water does a leaking irrigation system actually lose?
A single broken lateral can pass thousands of litres per irrigation cycle, invisibly, for an entire season — multiplied across a property with hundreds of zones. Under metered municipal rates and summer watering restrictions, operators consistently find the survey pays for itself in one billing cycle when it catches even one significant leak.
When is the best time to fly an irrigation survey?
During the irrigation season, after a scheduled dry-down — long enough that properly functioning zones have surface-dried while leak-fed soil stays wet. Pre-dawn flights give the cleanest thermal contrast. We coordinate the dry-down schedule with your superintendent so the survey reads true.
Does this work for agricultural operations, not just turf?
Yes — buried mainlines, drip systems, and pivot feeds all express the same way: moisture where it shouldn't be, stress where water isn't arriving. For BC orchards, vineyards, and field operations, the same flight also documents coverage uniformity — a yield question, not just a leak question.
Related drone leak services
Underground Water Main Leak Survey
Aerial thermal screening of buried water mains and service corridors — kilometres of distribution line surveyed per flight, leak-suspect zones mapped for targeted ground confirmation. The screening layer that shrinks non-revenue water programs from guesswork to a short list.
View serviceStormwater Pond & Outfall Leak Survey
Detention ponds, retention facilities, outfalls, and culverts surveyed for exfiltration, berm seepage, and bypass flow — the drainage infrastructure nobody can see failing until something downstream floods or erodes.
View serviceAerial Moisture Orthomosaic Mapping
The deliverable layer: survey-grade, georeferenced moisture orthomosaics — radiometric thermal fused with RTK photogrammetry — exported to CAD and GIS for engineers, consultants, and owners who need leak evidence they can measure from.
View servicePipeline & Right-of-Way Leak Screening
Water transmission lines, effluent and process pipelines, and utility rights-of-way screened by air — thermal anomalies, vegetation stress, and surface change along kilometres of linear asset, flown on a schedule ground patrols can't match.
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Free phone consult — site, access, airspace, and a firm quote, usually in five minutes.