Detecting material failures in ground locations

A method for capturing images of ground locations and for detecting the presence of failure(s) or material failures in man-made structures in such ground locations is disclosed. The method provides an image sensor spaced remotely from the ground and which sequentially captures a number of images of various ground locations to provide digital images; processing captured digital images to determine the presence of a potential material failure in a man-made structure in accordance with predetermined coordinate positions which locate the man-made structures in one or more of the captured digital images; and indicating to a customer that a potential material failure has been detected in a predetermined coordinate position.