Identifying Critical Micro-infrastructures

Micro-infrastructure refers to the smallest elements of the urban infrastructure fabric. It includes coaxial cable drops, electric transformer boxes, water meters, fiber huts, and many other visible (yet physically small) elements that urban residents depend on for daily activities. However, because many of these infrastructure elements are poorly cataloged, any extreme event (e.g., hurricane, earthquake, flood) that disrupts local systems often requires a prolonged and potentially dangerous locational rediscovery process for these micro-infrastructure elements. This chapter combines the capability of GeoAI with UAV imagery for extracting and cataloging micro-infrastructure across the urban landscape. We highlight the utility of UAV imagery and GeoAI for easing these efforts and discuss strategies for improving these spatial databases for emergency response and management.