Category Archives: Aerial/UAS
Assessing the Potential
UAS-based Topobathymetric Lidar Surveys Understanding stream channel and floodplain morphology is critical for a number of efforts—from hydraulic modeling and stream-restoration design to aquatic habitat assessment. These applications require description of conditions both inside the channels and in the adjacent riparian zones. Gathering these data has typically relied on individuals on the ground or in...
Aerial Imagery to the Rescue
Events in 2017 demonstrated without any doubts or reservations how vitally important georeferenced aerial imagery is in assessing damage and supporting relief efforts following a natural calamity. Last September, an impromptu consortium of companies in North America mobilized their forces and collected and analyzed mountains of data at near cost to help out in what...
Mexico City’s Transportation Revolution
Using drones, lidar, and BIM, enterprising surveyors and geospatial engineers designed and constructed the city’s first high-speed train system. Editor’s Note: Lessons learned from a problematic rail project in Mexico City prompted an initiative to pull out all technological stops for a subsequent new rail line. An innovative, tech-savvy firm that had demonstrated its capabilities...
Seven Standards for Delivering High-quality sUAS Imagery
I recently attended a pre-bid conference where the customer was interested in small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) imagery over a large enough area that mosaicking of the images was desired. What I thought would be a fairly straightforward conference turned into a knot of questions and exasperation. “How can we do this without ground control?”...
Easing the 3D Workflow
For 30 years, an Alaska-based company has been producing digital mapping and photogrammetic software to help automate the complex work of data interpretation. Photogrammetry, long the foundation of mapping, has evolved much since 1987 when DAT/EM Systems International was founded. Despite all the advances in both hardware and software, however, the latter cannot yet reliably...
Why Your First Drone Should Be a Hobby Drone: Part 2
In the last issue, we covered the idea of using a hobby drone as a test bed to learn about drones and get some low-cost, low-risk, hands-on experience. Now we’ll set up our Mambo FPV and take a few test flights. Battery charging. The first step—after opening the box and ensuring you have all the...
