# Imbalance-Aware Culvert-Sewer Defect Segmentation Using an Enhanced Feature Pyramid Network Source: [Imbalance-Aware Culvert-Sewer Defect Segmentation Using an Enhanced Feature Pyramid Network]() Collection index: [llms.txt]() Data updated: 2025-10-26T03:11:37.234Z Authors: Rasha Alshawi, Md Meftahul Ferdaus, Mahdi Abdelguerfi, Kendall Niles, Ken Pathak, Steve Sloan Published: 2024-08-19T17:40:18.000Z ## Abstract Imbalanced datasets are a significant challenge in real-world scenarios. They lead to models that underperform on underrepresented classes, which is a critical issue in infrastructure inspection. This paper introduces the Enhanced Feature Pyramid Network (E-FPN), a deep learning model for the semantic segmentation of culverts and sewer pipes within imbalanced datasets. The E-FPN incorporates architectural innovations like sparsely connected blocks and depth-wise separable convolutions to improve feature extraction and handle object variations. To address dataset imbalance, the model employs strategies like class decomposition and data augmentation. Experimental results on the culvert-sewer defects dataset and a benchmark aerial semantic segmentation drone dataset show that the E-FPN outperforms state-of-the-art methods, achieving an average Intersection over Union (IoU) improvement of 13.8% and 27.2%, respectively. Additionally, class decomposition and data augmentation together boost the model's performance by approximately 6.9% IoU. The proposed E-FPN presents a promising solution for enhancing object segmentation in challenging, multi-class real-world datasets, with potential applications extending beyond culvert-sewer defect detection. ## Recorded benchmark results A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage. ## Original sources and implementation [Original paper]() [PDF]()