Drone Flights For Environmental

I have completed more than 17 drone operations over the past week, collecting close to 300 gigabytes of drone data for our automated analytics efforts. Many of the flight hours recently logged where spent towards mapping campus waterways and environmental buffers.

Starting with the Mill Creek which borders the East side campus property near the CRSC. After generating plant health & elevation maps of the Mill Creek waterway on campus, I began planning for the next drone operation.

The next site was located South of a stream restoration project that crosses below our West campus bridge. Much of the storm water runoff that makes contact with paved surfaces in that Central and Westerly area of campus eventually makes it way into this stream.

Several months ago, machinery was brought into the area with the purpose of altering the landscape to better serve its surrounding environment. Large rocks where placed in clusters forming barriers to catch sediment moving down stream. Slowing down the fast moving storm water runoff decreases the amount of erosion and spreads the water over a wider surface.

The Northern half spans all the way to the College Parkway intersection. The map section overlay above shows the levels of earth decreasing in elevation from each side of the bridge. With this data we can identify the routes of water flow feeding the stream. Tracing this system of water flow helps give us insight on the deposit of nitrogen and phosphorus into the connecting watershed.