The Future of Pipeline Geohazard Management: Cracking the Landslide Code with Dr. Corey Scheip

Pipelines are a lifeline of modern society, stretching for thousands of kilometers to fuel our everyday lives. We all wish that once we buried a pipeline, it was safe and secure for the life of the line. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Today we’re going to talk about one relentless force acting against pipelines: landslides. Whether they're creeping along at almost imperceptible rates or racing down the slope, landslides can spell trouble for pipelines.

Fortunately, we’ve got a rock star in the field of geohazard management, Dr. Corey Scheip, Senior Geologist at BGC Engineering. Dr. Scheip sat down with us to discuss how cutting-edge tech like lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) and InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) is transforming pipeline geohazard management.

Science Meets Art: Spotting the Subtle Landslides

“Landslide identification lies at the intersection of science and art,” says Dr. Scheip. While dramatic landslides grab headlines and field crews' attention, it's the sneaky, slow movers—the so-called sleeping dragons—that pose the greatest threat.

“These slow-moving landslides quietly stress pipelines over months, years, or even decades, until they eventually cause catastrophic failures,” Dr. Scheip explains. It's a tough balancing act: to find the truly problematic landslides, geoscientists must look past the obvious in favor of subtle deformations that even the keenest field observations might miss.

Luckily, thanks to advancements in remote sensing, geologists can see more than ever. “Lidar and InSAR have become game-changers,” Dr. Scheip says, smiling. “They let us study hazards remotely, at a scale and level of detail that’s impossible to achieve with fieldwork alone.” At this point in his career, Dr. Scheip has worn out as many keyboards as he has pairs of field boots, reflecting the importance of these new remote sensing tools that were largely unavailable to geohazard professionals 30 years ago. 

Lidar: Giving Landslides the Laser-Focused Attention They Deserve

Lidar is basically geology’s version of x-ray vision. By shooting laser pulses at the ground and measuring how long it takes them to return, lidar can build hyper-accurate 3D maps of the terrain. Even in vegetated areas, we can now see what the ground surface looks like. Imagine this next time you are flying over a forest – what is down there, beneath the leaves? This technology has been used to identify ancient ruins and lost cities. It’s allowing car safety features to identify oncoming objects. And it’s completely changed the game in landslide identification.

We can turn this to 11 by obtaining multi-vintage lidar, which compares lidar collections from different points in time to reveal shifts in the ground surface that, to the trained eye, scream “landslide!” For many years, most practitioners have turned on and off each lidar-based terrain model, visually looking for changes in the landscape that may represent landslides. Dr. Scheip is a huge fan of programmatically detecting change in terrain models and likes to joke that “friends don’t let friends toggle hillshades. High-quality lidar change detection is simply the most efficient way to find active landslides.”

Even by today’s standards, lidar datasets are pretty large and complex. This is where Cambio steps in, deploying cutting-edge algorithms to handle these datasets and make the unmanageable manageable. “In the lidar game, no one else is doing what Cambio can do right now. I rave about their process because it truly is the best in the industry,” explains Dr. Scheip. 

InSAR: Radar That Sees Through Clouds

InSAR is an all-weather sidekick to lidar. Where lidar needs a clear line of sight, InSAR can peer through clouds and darkness. By comparing radar images taken from satellites at different times, InSAR can detect surface deformations down to millimeters and is well-adapted to identifying these low magnitude deformations.

“The cool thing about InSAR is its sensitivity and ability to image even through clouds,” Dr. Scheip says. “Even the smallest ground movements underneath a cloud can be picked up by comparing SAR images.” Of course, interpreting those data-heavy radar images takes teamwork. “Processing the data is hard. Interpreting the data is hard. But luckily, we have an awesome team of experts at Cambio Earth who can efficiently do both and then display the data for customers to view.”

Even this powerful tool has its challenges. Using average annual velocity, for instance, can smooth over seasonal or storm-triggered surges. “There’s so much nuance in the data, it can be overwhelming. So many practitioners look at things like average annual velocity because it’s easy,” Dr. Scheip says. “We’re at the leading edge of the industry in terms of how to pull out landslide-specific nuance from InSAR data. And it’s super fun to be on this team.”

What's Next? NISAR and the Future of Landslide Monitoring

Dr. Scheip can barely contain his excitement about the launch of NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) in March 2025. "NISAR will deliver near-real-time data we need to identify Earth's surface changes, potentially revolutionizing landslide risk assessment. Imagine a system that flags ground deformation as it happens and alerts pipeline operators."

As InSAR and lidar technologies advance, so does the need for smarter, faster data processing. Cambio is tackling this challenge head-on with AI-driven algorithms that automate landslide identification, paired with cloud computing platforms like Microsoft Azure and Google Earth Engine to handle the massive datasets. “We’re investing a lot of capital right now to drive the entire industry forward in terms of building AI workflows to handle these datasets.”

Digging Into Data Overload

For Dr. Scheip, the future of pipeline geohazard management boils down to this: managing mountains of data without getting buried. Cambio is leading the charge, combining the latest in tech with a clear focus on solving the industry's most pressing problems.

“The data are only going to get bigger and more complicated,” Dr. Scheip says. “Amongst pipeline operators in 2025, it’s already obvious who has invested in understanding and handling this data deluge and who has not. And the curve is only pointing up from here.”

With innovations like multi-vintage lidar, InSAR, and the upcoming NISAR launch, Cambio is carving a path forward in landslide monitoring. If you ever talk to Dr. Scheip, you’ll probably hear him say “It’s a great time to be doing this kind of work.” And we agree. Here in 2025, we have more data and more tools than ever that, when harnessed correctly, can decrease pipeline failures. Let’s do this.

The ground may be shifting beneath pipelines, but with experts like Dr. Scheip and Cambio leading the way, the future of geohazard management is gaining solid footing. 🌍