Potential of Sentinel-1 images for detecting changes around transmission lines

Abstract

The Brazilian energy transmission system is composed of approximately 160 thousand kilometers of lines that cross the country. The disturbances which inhibit the proper functioning of the system have different sources, and the monitoring frequenty is difficulty. The socio-patrimonial management of the resources must guard the integrity of the system, and it becomes essential to prevent occupation below the transmission lines. The radar images are viable alternative for the monitoring, being able to identify changes in the soil cover pattern without impediment from the clouds. In the scientific world these images have been better explored due to the costless and high frequency visits of the Sentinel-1. A scene dated year 2020 was chosen as default, spanning transmission line in the state of Ceará, Brazil and another scene, from 2021, was used to apply a change detection to check if the region remains unaltered or if there are patterns that correspond to new edifications. The application of change detection has shown to be feasible in the executed tests. Of the four spots of change, three of them have been confirmed. The process may be brought to its full potential with a larger number of scenes and samples with in loco verification.