Drones: The Next Great Leap in Hydrography

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Drones: The Next Great Leap in Hydrography

When users bring drone data into GIS, they exponentially increase the value of that data

l3yHr2d.jpgDrone technology itself has progressed over the past decade, allowing aerial photographic observation to become more accessible at a fraction of the cost of chartering aircraft for the same purpose.

Fuel expenses alone can be an obstacle to obtaining aerial data. Drone integration with geographic information system (GIS) technologies has existed for several years.

Using drones has proved to be a cost-effective and safe way to collect aerial data, with applications commonly used for fighting fire, monitoring environmental changes and managing rights-of-way vegetation.

However, when users bring drone data into GIS, they exponentially increase the value of that data. And thanks to new innovations in drone technology, maritime users can exploit that integration in new and exciting ways.

A seamless topo-bathymetric surface is now available to hydrographers interested in a more efficient and economical workflow.

Esri has just released the Drone2Map for ArcGIS app, which transforms high-resolution drone imagery into ready-to-use aerial data in the GIS platform. Users can bring point-clouds, mosaic datasets, 3D meshes and orthomosaics directly into the platform in near real time without any third-party application.

This is a huge leap in hydrographic technology because users can instantly produce new observations to update nautical charts and topographic maps. Simple photographic data obtained from a miniature camera mounted on a drone can be used for point-cloud collection, rather than rely on airborne lidar. Additionally, a geospatial platform stores and manages Drone2Map data, provides authoring and publishing tools and streams live and authoritative data for rich situational awareness. Maritime organizations can see data on real-time maps and as 3D digital visualizations.

ZYWLnMc.jpgWorking in the online Esri platform, users can share drone datasets, maps and analyses with other departments and agencies as well as the public. 

The platform stores drone data for later use as well as creates 3D geospatial visualizations of the shoreline, piers and pipelines.

In addition to integrating point-clouds with bathymetric data, drone mapping is also applicable to incidents such as oil spill and chemical hazard response.

For example, after an oil spill, drones capture situational imagery, and then GIS maps the affected area and uses oceanographic parameters—wind, currents, tide data—to project the spill’s drift over time.

Emergency Operations Center staff use these reconnaissance maps to plan contingency response and deploy resources, such as for determining boom placement around the spill.

Drone2Map offers a seamless topo-bathymetric workflow that government agencies have invested years of research and vast amounts of money into developing. The value of this technology is not just the accuracy of the data itself, but the fact that Drone2Map liberates hydrographers in several ways.

From an economic perspective, an inexpensive and accessible method of obtaining point-cloud data is invaluable. Drones are also more capable of maneuvering difficult terrain and aren’t limited by the same airspace standards as cumbersome aircraft outfitted with lidar. And drones also allow hydrographers to focus on their offshore bathymetry, as opposed to the additional risk of managing foreshore feature collection.

3LZyYaT.jpgHydrographic charting is becoming more important outside the world of shipboard navigation as both industry and conservation have gone offshore to meet the increasing demands of a growing global population.

By 2020, the subsea sector of oil exploration and extraction is expected to account for 20% of total crude oil production.

In addition, global marine fisheries, which provide 15% of all animal protein consumed by humans, have been steadily collapsing for the last half century.

As the needs of developed economies grow, so too must the tools to understand the new marine environments from which humanity seeks to satisfy those needs.

Hydrographic surveys will become more valuable information resources as the survival of the planet and global prosperity become increasingly tied to the geography and ecosystem of the sea.

Read full article at: Marine Technology News

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