Workflow Narrative

Utility Corridor Encroachment Detection

Problem It Solves

Which corridor segments present the highest near-term encroachment risk, and which assets should be prioritized first?

Who It Is For

Utility vegetation-management teams and corridor maintenance planners.

Primary User

Transmission and distribution operators, utility contractors, and corridor asset-management groups.

What It Does

Builds corridor-adjacent encroachment risk surfaces from LiDAR-derived canopy structure.
Produces priority zones and per-asset risk summaries for maintenance planning.

How It Works

Classifies vegetation and ground structure, then computes height-above-ground and local point-density context.
Builds a corridor-relative risk surface that emphasizes canopy proximity, density, and confidence-weighted structure signals.
Applies profile-based sensitivity settings and emits thresholded, ranked priority zones for maintenance triage.
Indicative formula: risk ~= f(proximity_to_corridor, canopy_height, local_density, classification_confidence).

Why It Wins

Produces both spatial priority zones and asset-level risk tables, enabling field-ready scheduling rather than map-only screening.

Typical Buying Trigger

Seasonal vegetation cycles or reliability programs require objective, repeatable encroachment prioritization across large networks.

Typical Presets

fast for broad network screening.
balanced for default operational planning.
strict for conservative risk escalation and tighter action thresholds.
Operational controls:
profile: fast | balanced | strict.
priority_zone_threshold and max_zone_features: bound priority-zone density for operational triage.

Inputs

Parameter	Optional	Description
input (LAS/LAZ)	no	Input LiDAR point cloud used to derive QA, terrain, structure, or encroachment products.
optional corridors and asset_features	yes	Optional corridor and asset vectors used to focus encroachment risk analysis.
profile: fast \| balanced \| strict	no	Operational profile controlling sensitivity and QA strictness for risk workflows.
priority_zone_threshold	no	Risk threshold used to classify high-priority encroachment zones.
max_zone_features	no	Upper cap on number of output zone features to control product size.

Outputs

Parameter	Type	Description
encroachment_risk	GeoTIFF	Encroachment risk surface used for corridor maintenance prioritization.
corridor_priority_zones	GeoPackage	Vector priority zones for field action planning.
asset_risk_table	GeoPackage	Vector table/layer with per-asset encroachment risk summaries.
classification_confidence	GeoTIFF	Confidence surface for LiDAR-derived classification and risk outputs.
summary	JSON	Machine-readable summary report containing run metadata, QA diagnostics, and key metrics.
html_report	HTML	Human-readable customer-facing report generated from the summary contract for stakeholder review and QA traceability.

Python Example

import whitebox_workflows as wbw

wbe = wbw.WbEnvironment(include_pro=True, tier="pro")

risk, zones, assets, conf, summary = wbe.utility_corridor_encroachment_intelligence(
    input="data/corridor_points.laz",
    corridors="data/corridors.gpkg",
    asset_features="data/assets.gpkg",
    profile="balanced",
    priority_zone_threshold=0.75,
    max_zone_features=5000,
    output_prefix="output/utility_corridor",
)

print(risk)
print(zones)
print(assets)
print(conf)
print(summary)

License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Project Links

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