Drone image of a peat bog. Green vegetation at the bottom of the picture, dark water above.

© BioConsult SH

Drone-based aerial surveys

Use of drones allows capturing timely, high-resolution aerial photographs for various purposes. Among others, these include biological surveys or the supervision of construction and compensation measures. Drones may increase the accuracy of counts of marine species by at the same time avoiding disturbances caused by the observer.

From survey to evaluation

Drone surveys can be used for various purposes:

  • Biological surveys, even of marine species (i. e., breeding and resting birds, harbour seals and grey seals)
  • Mapping of mussel beds and seagrass meadows
  • Beach litter mapping
  • Vegetation mapping
  • Supervision of construction and compensation measures
  • Land surveying
  • Surveys of coastal lines, dunes and dikes
  • Documentation of damages of the crop caused by excess moisture or draught

Our drones

BioConsult SH has different drones that can be deployed flexibly depending on the required size of the area or the characteristics of the object.

A ready-to-launch drone on a beach.

© M. Schnurawa

WingtraOne Gen II

  • Monitoring drone for large areas (> 100 ha per flight)
  • RGB and multispectral sensor
  • PPK-equipped to produce centimetre-level georeferencing
  • Nadir images
Multicopter drone for images and video.

© M. Schnurawa

DJI Phantom 4 Pro

  • Multicopter drone for images and video
  • RGB sensor
  • Nadir and off-nadir images
Multicopter drone for images and video

© M. Schnurawa

Matrice 300 RTK

  • Monitoring drone for large areas
  • Drone for images and video
  • RGB and multispectral sensor
  • RTK-equipped to produce centimetre-level georeferencing
  • Nadir and off-nadir images
Multicopter drone for photo and video recordings

© A. Kersten

Mavic 3e

  • Multicopter drone
  • Image and video recording
  • RGB sensor (wide-angle and zoom)
  • RTK module for centimetre-level georeferencing
  • Nadir and off-nadir recordings
GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Reciever Stonex S900T

© Marc Schnurawa

GNSS Receiver Stonex S900T

  • Base station to perform post-processed kinematic (PPK) of drone images
  • Optional base and rover configuration
  • Receives GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Galileo
  • Sub-centimetre accuracy of ground control points (GCPs)
An aerial view of a GCP (Ground Control Point), a black and white plate that can be used to accurately measure the location of drone footage.

© BioConsult SH

GCPs

  • Standard size: 30 cm and 50 cm
  • Absolute accuracy of drone location data
  • Validation of RTK and PPK accuracy

Data processing and evaluation

Next to simply record data, BioConsult SH additionally offers data processing and content-related evaluation.

A digital surface model of the Hallig Südfall in the colours red, yellow, green and blue.

© BioConsult SH

Processing of drone images

  • Digital surface model (DSM)
  • Orthophotos
  • Digital terrain model (DTM)
  • Index maps for multispectral images
  • Vegetation indices
Aerial view of a salt marsh.

© BioConsult SH

Content-related evaluation

  • Identification of marine species and birds
  • Breeding bird monitoring
  • Vegetation analyses
  • Object identification and recognition
  • Volume estimates
  • Development and application of automatised data analysis methods (AI)

Reference projects

Papers and reports

Schnurawa, M., Mueller, J. S., Schade, H. & Nehls, G. (2024)

Drone-based monitoring of intertidal blue mussel beds in the Wadden Sea – comparison of a threshold and two machine learning approaches

Front. Mar. Sci. 11:1381036. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1381036

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2024.1381036/full

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