Easier said than drone…The use of sUAVs in environmental investigations

John West, PE CHMM PMPSenior Environmental EngineerApex Companies, LLCjohn.west@apexcos.com303-748-3304

It’s a little about perspective…

And a LOT about compliance…

sUAV Flight Limitations

‣ 55 pounds maximum‣ 400’ AGL maximum‣ Visual line-of-sight (VLOS) with the operator‣ Must have a spotter*‣ Need authorization to fly within 5 miles of an

airport*‣ Must give way to manned flights‣ Cannot fly over crowds‣ No night flights‣ Must have permission to fly over private property

* will change with Part 107

Is there anything else you need to worry about?

‣ What happens if your contractor’s $1,000 drone hits the $500,000 tank (antenna, house, etc.) ?

‣ Insurance!• Traditional liability policies do not cover aviation

accidents‣ Drones = Aviation

• The best management practices for drones is to secure a $1,000,000 aviation-specific liability policy

Conventional Aerial Photography‣ Satellites are so expensive that

commonly and commercially available imagery comes as a massive, wide-area package resulting in one-foot-pixel resolution

‣ Conventional aerial photography requires getting an aircraft properly equipped and airborne. The aircraft then takes a limited number of photographs from 1,000 feet to 10,000 feet above the surface. This is very expensive, and may not provide you with the kind of resolution needed for that photography to be actionable

small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (sUAVs)

‣ sUAV = sUAS = Drone‣ The DJI® Phantom 3 Advanced.

• Global Positioning System (GPS/GLONASS)• Stabilized optics• Integrated with Apple® iOS® devices • Apps that can create complicated flight missions

which are executed autonomously

Photogrammetry Missions are flown autonomously while collecting a set of 12-megapixel aerial photographs according to the mission specificationsThe photographs are uploaded to computers that create detailed ortho-mosaic imagesThe photographs are analyzed to identify hundreds of unique points in each photographThe thousands of points throughout the set of photographs are compared to each other using the altitude of the drone and the relative angles to determine the surface elevationThose elevations are used to create a digital elevation model

What can drones do?

Drone photography is useful and cost effective because you can have missions flown before, during, and after a project is performedDrone photography is taken within 400 feet of the surface, resulting in higher resolutions of one-inch pixels Drone photography is quick. Actionable data from a flight mission is available within hours or days, not weeks Drone can use multiple technologies in an integrated package which produces better results in less time than you would expect

Do you work with GIS?

Drone photographyGeoreferencedOrtho-mosaic images Elevation modelsVolumetric calculations

Drone photography can be imported easily into geographic information systems (GIS)

Safety

‣ Using a sUAV for aerial photography keeps boots on the ground and eliminates the use of scaffolding and aerial lifts and the associated risks

‣ More site information can be made available when an environmental site or building is too hazardous/dangerous to allow personnel access

Environmental Applications

‣ Site assessments with up-to-date aerial imagery instead of outdated information

‣ Volume calculations for stockpiles and mine tailings‣ Emergency responses where up-to-date imagery is

priceless‣ Updated regulatory reports with imagery that

shows a recently expanded or altered site as it is, not how it appears in satellite imagery

‣ Tracking progress on a remediation, restoration, or construction site with aerial maps shot on a regular schedule

Inspections and Assessments

‣ Drones can be used by inspection teams to collect the critical information and images to protect property and meet regulatory requirements

‣ In addition to the information gathered in ortho-mosaics, the sUAV can collect aerial photographs from oblique angles and closer altitudes, or collect video

sUAVs Inspections and Assessments

• Restoration site progress• Property assessments• Site assessments• Antennas• Smoke stacks• Rooftops• Bridges• Pipelines• Construction site progress

Huge NASA technology! itty bitty budgets!

‣ Drones are starting to use techniques and sensors used by NASA in their programs:• OPLS- Open Path Laser Spectrometer

‣ Taken from the Curiosity rover, this sensor has been used on a NASA drone to detect airborne methane at ppb levels

• NDVI- Normalized Difference Vegetative Index‣ Flying with a multi-spectral camera to analyze the

health of vegetation for farms, golf courses, and parks

• Magnetometer Surveys‣ Based on the accelerometers in smart phones this

technology is much more sensitive and provides geophysical data

• SAR- Synthetic Aperture Radar (coming soon?)‣ Perform ground penetrating radar surveys from the

air

Other tricks drones may offer

‣ Thermal imaging cameras for capturing heat signatures from the air and looking for gas leaks

‣ LiDAR‣ Carrying 1L Summa Cannisters with remotely

triggered solenoid valves for collecting grab samples from the air

‣ Particulate matter (PM) monitoring‣ Radiation monitoring‣ VOC monitoring with a photoionization detector

(PID)‣ Carrying rescue packs to swimmers at major

beaches or to hikers on mountains‣ Some company that rhymes with Hamazon is going

to deliver packages with them

Questions?

John West, PE CHMM PMPSenior Environmental EngineerApex Companies, LLCjohn.west@apexcos.com303-748-3304