When utility pipelines age there is a requirement to replace the assets to meet health and safety requirements. Often, disconnected services are abandoned and left in the ground, which can make it difficult to identify the status of the asset, i.e. whether it is ‘live’ and providing a supply, or ‘dead’ and not in use.

By visually inspecting these pipes there is no way of determining their status without using invasive procedures; therefore, there is a challenge to identify whether pipelines are ‘live or dead’.