What can I do with a Drone for AEC GIS use?

HGuzman · ‎04-11-2024

Hello everyone, I work in Civil Engineering, the GIS side, and have recently obtained my Part 107 sUAS Remote Pilots Certificate so, now I can fly for the company but, I'm not sure what to do now that I have my license.

I would like to use drone data for GIS but the only uses I can think of currently is like maybe footage for ArcGIS Story Maps. I have more ideas on the aerial photography side, and I feel like I'm having trouble thinking about the analytical possibilities.

Has anyone else felt this way? Has anyone used drones in other ways for GIS, specifically ArcGIS Pro? Ideas and or stories would be much appreciated. Thank you.

zjaffe_MapIT · ‎04-11-2024

Hi @HGuzman,

Congrats on getting your sUAS pilots certificate. There is a lot you can do with drone data in GIS. What first comes to mind is using the aerial imagery as a high resolution and up-to-date basemap. While the esri basemaps are great, they can be outdated and not have great resolution in certain areas. You can also use the imagery to deliver progress reports on various stages of construction for example where you can create cool map views with time sliders to compare imagery from different time periods the data was captured (think before, during, and after images).

Additionally, you can also use the drone data to create a 3D point cloud. You can then classify the point cloud to extract information such as land/vegetation cover, building footprints (in 2D and model them in 3D), powerlines, create DEM's or DTM's, and more. I am sure you are familiar with the 2D imagery aspect of the drone data, so I would definitely look into creating point clouds and playing around with that to see what you can do.

Hope that helps!

View solution in original post

Tony_DLR22

Hi @HGuzman . Congratulations on obtaining your Part 107 cert! I'll echo some of @zjaffe_MapIT suggestions.

I'm part of a small-medium water utility and we have quite a few drones in our arsenal! We mainly use our drones to enhance our aerial imagery. We regularly inspect our assets including booster pumps, reservoir tanks and various other physical assets, especially when it comes to wildfire season. The aerial photographs help show brush build up and helps us prioritize which sites need to be cleaned-up. It's also a great tool to update our emergency paper facility maps with recent aerial photography of the sites.

When we fly, we sometimes find illegal trash/dumping sites and report these to local clean-up organizations. We've also ran into illegal cannabis cultivation in our area so the drones help keep our local officials updated with any "pop-up" occurrences. Overall, we mainly use drones for high res/up-to-date imagery and often import them into ArcGIS Pro to create features and map exhibits. We don't really have drones that use lidar, but I've seen it used by other utilities for 3D site analysis (how will a new booster building fit in this site, etc.) Below is list of some of my recent projects that involved drones:

- Joshua Trees counts in a specific parcel/site, Reservoir tank inspections, Facility/New construction mapping, aftermath comparison post disaster event (flood, snowstorm, major water line rupture, etc.), and water conservation monitoring.

Hope this helps!

View solution in original post

zjaffe_MapIT · ‎04-11-2024

Hi @HGuzman,

Congrats on getting your sUAS pilots certificate. There is a lot you can do with drone data in GIS. What first comes to mind is using the aerial imagery as a high resolution and up-to-date basemap. While the esri basemaps are great, they can be outdated and not have great resolution in certain areas. You can also use the imagery to deliver progress reports on various stages of construction for example where you can create cool map views with time sliders to compare imagery from different time periods the data was captured (think before, during, and after images).

Additionally, you can also use the drone data to create a 3D point cloud. You can then classify the point cloud to extract information such as land/vegetation cover, building footprints (in 2D and model them in 3D), powerlines, create DEM's or DTM's, and more. I am sure you are familiar with the 2D imagery aspect of the drone data, so I would definitely look into creating point clouds and playing around with that to see what you can do.

Hope that helps!

Tony_DLR22

Hi @HGuzman . Congratulations on obtaining your Part 107 cert! I'll echo some of @zjaffe_MapIT suggestions.

I'm part of a small-medium water utility and we have quite a few drones in our arsenal! We mainly use our drones to enhance our aerial imagery. We regularly inspect our assets including booster pumps, reservoir tanks and various other physical assets, especially when it comes to wildfire season. The aerial photographs help show brush build up and helps us prioritize which sites need to be cleaned-up. It's also a great tool to update our emergency paper facility maps with recent aerial photography of the sites.

When we fly, we sometimes find illegal trash/dumping sites and report these to local clean-up organizations. We've also ran into illegal cannabis cultivation in our area so the drones help keep our local officials updated with any "pop-up" occurrences. Overall, we mainly use drones for high res/up-to-date imagery and often import them into ArcGIS Pro to create features and map exhibits. We don't really have drones that use lidar, but I've seen it used by other utilities for 3D site analysis (how will a new booster building fit in this site, etc.) Below is list of some of my recent projects that involved drones:

- Joshua Trees counts in a specific parcel/site, Reservoir tank inspections, Facility/New construction mapping, aftermath comparison post disaster event (flood, snowstorm, major water line rupture, etc.), and water conservation monitoring.

Hope this helps!

AneehatPreciousOkesade

Great