A combined approach for detection and localization of subsurface pipe leaks using ground microphone and GPR

Leaks in underground water pipelines not only lead to water wastage but can also cause serious public safety issues such as road collapse in urban areas. To address the low efficiency and accuracy of traditional pipeline leak monitoring and detection methods, this paper proposes a combined approach for detection and localization of subsurface pipeline leaks using ground microphones and ground penetrating radar (GPR). In the ground microphone method, loudness units referenced to digital full scale is used to identify leaky range along a pipeline. A GPR investigation is performed in the suspected area to detect the water-rich area and localize the leakage point. According to the depth and leakage volume of the pipeline, two strategies using the two methods are proposed for efficient and accurate detection and localization of buried pipeline leaks. Two case studies are conducted to validate the proposed approaches. The results indicate that the combined approach effectively leverages the advantages of ground microphones and GPR, enabling efficient and accurate detection and localization of buried pipeline leaks. • A combined detection approach using GPR and ground microphone is proposed. • The LUFS method based on ground microphone can identify the suspected leak area. • The relative wavelet entropy method based on GPR can accurately locate the leak. • Proposed approach is suitable for different subsurface pipeline leakage scenarios.