UAS and Environmental Management

A New Paradigm

Richard McShane

Business Development Manager

UAS: A New Paradigm

“ The Unmanned aerial vehicle’s given us the opportunity to shoot shots that we really didn’t

think were possible. It’s really opened up so many new options for us…..The possibilities in

the future are pretty much endless.”

Aaron Smith, Director of Photography, Plonk!, 2014

UAS: A New Paradigm

UAS in Environmental Management

• Environmental regulatory compliance

• Subsidence Monitoring

• Fauna Stocktake and habitat monitoring

• Fire analysis and investigation

• Other evolving uses

Environmental Regulatory Compliance

“Due to the quantities of stored materials, the size or layout of the premises, the operation proposes the use of

Remotely Piloted Aircraft to assist in Surveying each property.”

NSW Environmental Protection Agency, <Operation Details Removed>, 2014

Case Study – A property near Canberra

Original Intelligence

New View

A New Baseline

GPS Tagged Hot Spots

Instant rapport with stakeholders

The inaccessible made accessible

The inaccessible made accessible

Volumetric data to support clean-up orders

Case Study – A property near Canberra

“We are all well impressed with the video, it’s awesome, definitely proof of concept for that phase of the trial for us.”

EPA Officer (Name Removed), June 2014

Subsidence Monitoring

To understand the potential impact of construction developments and mining

operations on the environment.

Subsidence Monitoring

• Traditional surveying techniques (levelling, Electronic Distance Measurement (EDM), height traversing, etc) are time consuming and limited in the spatial extent of the information that it can provide1.

• UAS aerial survey provides a dense point cloud over the ENTIRE monitoring area

• Repeated measurement over a longer duration with no fixed infrastructure

• Single use versus multiple use output products

1McClusky and Tregoning, ANU, 2013

A detailed points cloud provides a greater span of monitoring

Fauna Stocktake and Habitat Monitoring

Fauna Stocktake

• Using Thermal Imagery cameras

• Negligible disturbance to fauna

• Identification of invasive species

• No impact by staff and rangers in gathering data and evidence

• Low disturbance = better count

• Visual evidence gathering

© United State Geological Survey National UAS Project Office

Complete disinterest

Habitat Monitoring

• Negligible disturbance to flora

• Identification of invasive species

Identification of Invasive Species

Case Study – Macquarie Wetlands

Domestic cattle invading heritage-listed Wetlands

Wildlife tracks exacerbated by Cattle

Effect of fire after lightening strike

Fire analysis and investigation

Fire Investigation

Case Study – Winery near Canberra

• Identification of point of origin

• Provided evidence to insurance company

• Identifies scale of damage

Fire Investigation

Case Study – Canberra Public Area

• Identification of point of origin

• Provided forensic evidence

• Enables tracking of regrowth

The Old Paradigm

• Aerial photography is too expensive

• Aerial photography lacks definition

• Survey can’t provide the granularity and breadth without the on-ground risks

We’ve never thought to use aerial photography or survey for this before!

The New Paradigm

UAS operators will not identify the next wave of UAS uses; our customers will.

Our job is to discuss the art of the possible…then implement it.

Me. 2014.

Thank you! Any Questions?