Using drones to mapgeomorphological features

in the Subantarctics

One of the keys to better understanding climate change

is to paint a more accurate picture of environmental conditions

in the distant past

A good place to measure environmental change over such long timescales?

New Subantarctic Islands

In November 2014, a team of researchers from the Climate

Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales

set out to do just

This team decided to map the Musgrave

geomorphological features, since these provide evidence of past glaciation

complex geomorphology, so we wanted to map it, in high resolution, and create a 3D model that we could

use to identify and quantify past Dr. Zoë

Thomas, a research associate

By then taking sediment cores, we could also get an idea of what the

past vegetation and environmental

So why did the researchers

decide to use a drone?

No other method of data collection could provide the imagery required

in the time available.

There were

3 key reasons

Speed#1

#2Difficult terrain

High-resolutionimagery

#3

To map this area would have taken us weeks using traditional in-situ field

explains

resolution of the Landsat imagery is 30 metres, much lower than the 8.8 cm per pixel our eBee achievedshe adds

choice to use a senseFly eBee also brought anadditional benefit

low noise is important when working in protected areas

that contain large bird says Thomas

But carrying out the drone flights was not all plain

The Subantarctic islands are located in the latitudes of the

strong trade winds, so finding windows of opportunity to fly the

drone was always going to be a challenge says

How didthey do it?

When planning each

eMotion software, the team specified a desired ground

resolution of 8.8 cm/pixel, with image

overlaps of 70% lateral and 75%

longitudinal.

The team took a total of 152 high-resolution RGB images over the course of two 20-25 minute flights

The result?

These images were used to create the digital surface model required to identify

geomorphological features

incredible, allowing us to identify a moraine feature that we had not picked up at all on

the Landsat imagery reports

The ability to identify features like this really helps us improve our

understanding of glacier flow lines

1 Identify site of interest

2 Identifysuitable area for

drone to map

3 Identify take-off/landing

locations

4 Wait for suitable weather

conditions

5 Fly the drone6 Process drone

images & generate 3D DSM

7 Analyse drone data

PROJECT WORKFLOW

PROJECT STATISTICS

For more information about using drones for environmental applications, visit:

www.sensefly.com/applications/environmental-protection.html