SYSTEM AND METHOD OF USING AERIAL DATA FOR DETECTING FRACKING ACTIVITY

1 . A method for monitoring fracturing activities, comprising:

receiving, by a computing system, aerial images of a geographical region;

analyzing, by the computing system, the aerial images to detect a presence of a well pad within the geographical region;

receiving, by the computing system, further aerial images of the well pad;

monitoring, by the computing system, the further aerial images to identify fracking activity on the well pad; and

recording, by the computing system, the fracking activity.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

creating, by the computing system, a chronological series of aerial images for each detected well pad location to form a time-series repository.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring, by the computing system, the further aerial images to identify the fracking activity on the well pad comprises:

detecting a presence of metal in the further aerial images.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein detecting the presence of metal in the further aerial images comprises:

detecting metal in at least three aerial images.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring, by the computing system, the further aerial images to identify fracking activity on the well pad comprises:

detecting an increase or decrease in a presence of metal in the further aerial images.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein analyzing, by the computing system, the aerial images comprises:

employing, by the computing system, a machine learning model that has been trained using a set of training images labeled to indicate the presence or absence of a well pad.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

triggering, by the computing system, a notification to a user interface when a change in metal onsite is detected that indicates a start or end of fracking activities.

8 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising one or more sequences of instructions, which, when executed by a processor, causes a computing system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a computing system, aerial images of a geographical region;

analyzing, by the computing system, the aerial images to detect a presence of a well pad within the geographical region;

receiving, by the computing system, further aerial images of the well pad;

monitoring, by the computing system, the further aerial images to identify fracking activity on the well pad; and

recording, by the computing system, the fracking activity.

9 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , further comprising:

creating, by the computing system, a chronological series of aerial images for each detected well pad location to form a time-series repository.

10 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein monitoring, by the computing system, the further aerial images to identify fracking activity on the well pad comprises:

detecting a presence of metal in the further aerial images.

11 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein detecting the presence of metal in the further aerial images comprises:

detecting metal in at least three aerial images.

12 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein monitoring, by the computing system, the further aerial images to identify fracking activity on the well pad comprises:

detecting an increase or decrease in a presence of metal in the further aerial images.

13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein analyzing, by the computing system, the aerial images comprises:

employing, by the computing system, a machine learning model that has been trained using a set of training images labeled to indicate the presence or absence of a well pad.

14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , further comprising:

triggering, by the computing system, a notification to a user interface when a change in metal onsite is detected that indicates a start or end of fracking activities.

15 . A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having programming instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, causes the system to perform operations comprising:

receiving aerial images of a geographical region;

analyzing the aerial images to detect a presence of a well pad within the geographical region;

receiving further aerial images of the well pad;

monitoring the further aerial images to identify fracking activity on the well pad; and

recording the fracking activity.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

creating a chronological series of aerial images for each detected well pad location to form a time-series repository.

17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein monitoring the further aerial images to identify fracking activity on the well pad comprises:

detecting a presence of metal in the further aerial images.

18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein detecting the presence of metal in the further aerial images comprises:

detecting metal in at least three aerial images.

19 . The system of claim 15 , wherein monitoring the further aerial images to identify fracking activity on the well pad comprises:

detecting an increase or decrease in a presence of metal in the further aerial images.

20 . The system of claim 15 , wherein analyzing the aerial images comprises:

employing a machine learning model that has been trained using a set of training images labeled to indicate the presence or absence of a well pad.