Drones and unmanned arial vehicles (UAVs) are an increasingly popular way for developers, conservationists, and land surveyors to conduct surveys on various environments and pieces of land.
According to a report on the use of drones for restoration ecology, they can be used in a number of restoration scenarios like mapping habitats, managing wildfires, and monitoring restoration efforts.They can also be used for a variety of purposes such as:
• Habitat mapping
• Climate change research
• Ecosystem processes and services
• Water resource and wetland management
• Habitat restoration
Traditionally, the main forms of surveyance have been from satellite imagery, footwork, and crowdsourcing:
• Satellites: these give a high detail view of an area, but can be expensive and hard to obtain recent imagery from. Additionally, they cannot give multiple angles of imagery, provide imagery at the moment of request, or investigate further, so they can end up falling behind other methods.
• Footwork: by inspecting the site on foot, you can receive a report based on first-hand exploration. However, some sites can be difficult or impossible to navigate, and a report given from the ground perspective may not have as much detail or accuracy as a drone’s overview.
• Crowdsourcing: depending on where the land is and what you’re using it for, you may be able to forego the expense of on-site manpower and get budding conservationists to provide you with the information you need. This is far from a reliable source of information, however, especially for construction projects, so other methods should be explored instead.
Drones act as the next step forward for land surveys. They can provide 360-degree imagery of any site, requiring little investment and producing extremely detailed results – exactly to your specification. They can record photos and imagery from any angle, and provide a low-interference way of engaging with the natural environment.