Unmanned Systems Geospatial Applications

Introduction In this lab, we made use of an online tutorial on ArcGIS Online.  The tutorial ( Calculate Impervious Surfaces Imagery )  walked us through classifying an aerial image to determine the surface types.  This can be helpful, as ground surfaces that are impenetrable to water are dangerous and can cause serious environmental problems, including flooding and contaminated runoff.  With the classification of the surface types, this can determine where the impervious surfaces are on the properties of homeowners in which the government can actually fine the owners.  In this tutorial, the data is supplied by the local government of Louisville, Kentucky in which this very action is looking to be done. Methods and Results The goal of this lab as mentioned in the introduction was to classify the surfaces of an aerial image of a Louisville neighborhood in which the government would then use to issue fines.  To start, the data was downloaded, and t...

Introduction In this lab, we learned about volumetrics in both Pix4D and ArcGIS Pro.  With these volumes, an analysis was done to identify the volume of the surface that has been modified by the removal or addition of surface material.  This is one of the most common uses of UAS in the construction industry, as companies need to know if they need to order more of the aggregate, or if their current inventory is sufficient.  This would be done prior to UAS technology with a rod and a surveyor in which the surveyor would have to collect coordinate data all around the pile using the rod and would even have to climb it to get this data.  Nowadays, the use of UAS greatly increases the efficiency of collecting data, as it cuts the time in half of what this process would normally take. To add to our knowledge, in this lab, we used different methods of calculating the volume in Pix4D such as triangulated, fit plane, align with average altitude, etc., and compared the me...