Drone Leak Investigation · Government & Municipal
Underground Water Main Leak Survey by drone.
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.
Free phone consult · No pressure · Mon–Sat 8am–6pm PT
Why owners and operators choose it
- Screens entire corridors instead of walking metre by metre
- Prioritises acoustic ground crews to mapped suspect zones
- Georeferenced anomalies drop straight into GIS
- Aerial screening and ground confirmation under one company
Built for
How the investigation runs
- 1
Network review
GIS layers, pipe age and material, pressure zones, and any district metering data identify the corridors where water loss is most probable — the flight plan follows the risk, not the map grid.
- 2
Thermal corridor flight
Radiometric thermal flown in the right surface-contrast window: water escaping a buried main changes the soil's moisture and thermal behaviour, and saturated ground expresses at the surface as a measurable anomaly along the alignment.
- 3
Anomaly screening
Every thermal anomaly is reviewed against irrigation, drainage, shade, and utility-crossing explanations. What survives is a ranked, RTK-geotagged suspect list — typically a handful of zones per kilometre, not hundreds.
- 4
Ground confirmation
Our own acoustic correlation and ground-microphone crews confirm and pinpoint each suspect zone to dig-accuracy. One report: aerial evidence, ground confirmation, repair-ready coordinates.
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
Can a drone actually see a buried water main leak?
Not the pipe itself — the surface expression of the leak. Water escaping a pressurised main saturates the surrounding soil, and saturated soil heats and cools differently than the dry ground beside it. A radiometric sensor with ≤50 mK sensitivity measures that differential along the corridor. It is a screening method: it tells ground crews where to listen, which is exactly what makes network-scale surveys affordable.
How does this fit a non-revenue water program?
Utilities commonly lose a meaningful share of treated water to distribution leakage — industry reporting puts typical systems anywhere from 10 to 30 percent. The expensive part of recovering it is finding the leaks. Aerial screening compresses kilometres of network into a ranked shortlist of suspect zones, so acoustic crews spend their hours confirming leaks instead of hunting for them.
What confirms the aerial findings?
Ground-based acoustic correlation — the same Leak.ca crews who have pinpointed BC water leaks since 1999. We deliberately keep both halves in-house: the aerial survey ranks the corridor, the correlator puts a paint mark on the road. You get one accountable report, not two vendors pointing at each other.
When is the best time to fly a mains survey?
Stable weather with good surface contrast — typically early morning or evening flights, and outside heavy-rain periods that mask the signal. In most BC communities we can schedule an effective window within days. Seasonally, late summer low-moisture conditions give the cleanest baseline, but surveys run year-round with window selection.
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