Application of UAV Imagery for Conservation Easement Assessment and Monitoring

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Application of UAV Imagery for Conservation
Easement Assessment and Monitoring

• Dion J. Wiseman, Brandon University
• Ryan Brooks, Brandon University
• Lacy Kontzie, MHHC

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Introduction

• MHHC uses conservation agreements to ensure
  long-term conservation of habitat
• Baseline habitat inventories are conducted on new
  conservation agreements
• Aerial monitoring is conducted annually to ensure
  cooperation with agreements
• Currently 450 agreements, covering 80,000 acres

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Baseline Inventory

• Field-based land cover/wetland inventory
• Using a handheld GPS
• Typically, takes two staff a half day, per ¼
  section
• Not practical for annual monitoring

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Annual Monitoring

• Low altitude, oblique aerial photography
• GPS track log
• Used for visually identifying easement violations
• No feature extraction
• See Ryans poster

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Purpose

• Evaluate the use of existing digital
  orthophotography and UAV imagery for conducting
  baseline inventories and annual monitoring
• Do these products provide sufficient spatial,
  spectral and temporal resolution?

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Study Area
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Study Area
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Baseline Inventory
May 2002 July 2004
Below Avg. Slightly Above Avg.
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Orthophotography

• Acquired October, 1993
• 160,000 panchromatic vertical air photos
• Scanned at 2000 dpi

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Orthophotography
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Ortho Classification
July August Precip. 242 mm
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UAV Imagery
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UAV Configuration
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Autopilot System
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Flight Commands

• fromto (9945.9964W,5011.3223N)
• fServo8 32767
• wait 4
• fServo8 0
• fromto (9945.8200W,5011.3223N)
• fServo8 32767
• wait 4
• fServo8 0
• climb 100
• flyto home
• circuit
• return
• fixed//second shot

• metric
• takeoff
• 1239 0
• climb 600
• waitclimb 50
• flyto (9945.3865W,5011.7579N)
• climb 600
• flyto (9945.5512W,5011.7579N)
• fromto (9945.6184W,5011.7579N)
• fromto (9945.8200W,5011.7579N)
• fServo8 32767
• wait 4
• fServo8 0

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Horizonmp
Flight Planning - Simulation - Ground Control
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UAV Pros Cons

• Advantages
• low initial and per flight cost
• high spatial resolution
• better temporal resolution
• Disadvantages
• limited spectral resolution/ available sensors
• post processing hundred of photos

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UAV Imagery
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UAV Imagery
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UAV Imagery
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Mosaic AutoPano Pro
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Georeference ArcGIS
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UAV Imagery
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UAV Classification
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Quantitative Comparison
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Quantitative Comparison
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Quantitative Comparison
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Orthophotography
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UAV Imagery
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Ortho Classification
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UAV Classification
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Orthophotography

• Poor spatial/spectral resolution, difficult
  feature identification/classification
• Poor data quality
• consistency
• completeness
• Inadequate for baseline inventories
• Potential for detecting violations

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UAV Imagery

• Spatial/spectral resolution exceeded requirements
  for feature identification/ classification
• Sufficient for baseline inventories and
  monitoring easement violations
• Imagery available on demand
• Comparatively low cost, 1/acre

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Conclusions

• Orthophotography may be limited to monitoring for
  easement violations
• UAV imagery is an attractive alternative for
  baseline inventories and monitoring agreements
  particularly remote areas
• New, high resolution, colour orthophotos will be
  outdated before they are released

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Acknowledgements

• Funding provided by Brandon University, Outreach
  Service and Brandon University Student Union,
  Work Study Program
• Access to the study are compliments of the
  Bramley family

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Questions?