What is a UAV Survey?

Whilst many people are familiar with drones used in filming sports or travels, not everyone is aware they play an increasingly important role in the survey world too. A UAV, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle survey uses the drone technology to capture survey grade high resolution imagery, but also for other survey techniques such as photogrammetry.

The drones used for these surveys have a number of landward facing sensors and cameras to capture pre-determined land based georeferenced points, from different angles and elevations to create a clear overall picture of the site. With the power of image recognition and processing software mixed with survey grade GPS information, photogrammetry software can create georeferenced mosaics accurate to a few centimetres! These maps can then in turn be used to determine highly accurate distances and volumes.

We frequently use the wide range of different outputs, including orthomosaic maps, 3D point clouds, digital elevation and terrain models and many more. These are very powerful in a plethora of applications including, urban planning, land surveying/cartography, land management, and development. Further, the use of drones allows you to access sites which would otherwise be inaccessible to vehicles and pedestrians, such as tidal islands and steep escarpments.

This technique can also be used alongside ground based topographic and water based bathymetric surveys to form a mesh of data that can be stitched together into a highly accurate and resolved combined data set of the survey area. By combining different data collection methodologies, we can create 3D models that are far more detailed and accurate than historical imagery or from using just one of these techniques independently. This is especially important in tidal areas which are notoriously difficult and complex to measure.

At Exo Environmental we provide a number of UAV capabilities. If you require a UAV survey or think you do but are unsure, you can contact us via email (enquiries@exo-env.co.uk), the form on our Contact Page or on any of our social media accounts! (Twitter, Facebook). Also, if you haven’t already, make sure you check out our YouTube channel and subscribe! We’re posting an array of videos from project updates to tutorials and more! Visit our YouTube channel here: Exo Environmental YouTube.