UAV Applications
SGRC Lead Researcher: Ian Parfitt
SGRC Researcher: Ian Dennis
Bachelors of GIS Students: David Greaves, Isabella Beharrel
SGRC Coops: David Greaves (2016), Evan Amies-Golanski (2017), Joseph Plessis (2017)
Collaborating Agencies: Red Mountain Resort, the Central Kootenay Invasive Species Society, the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area
Funders: Morrow Bioscience, the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK)
Since 2016 the SGRC has been using drones for mapping, remote sensing and videography work. This has been a rapidly growing field of new research, with lots of interested collaborators. New equipment in terms of drones and sensors is regularly added to the fleet All work has been done following the Transport Canada regulations under licence of a special flight operators certificate. Some example projects and results are listed below
Ski Terrain
Bachelor’s student Isabella Beharrel engaged with Red Mountain Resort to create a 3 dimensional profile of Grey mountain. The profile could then be used to aid the decision in choosing the siting of a proposed new ski lodge.
Mosquito Breeding Sites
Coop Student David Greaves partnered with Morrow Bioscience in a research project to use a thermal sensor to detect pools of water used by mosquitos for breeding. The pools could be identified in the thermal image by their cooler spectral signature compared to the surrounding landscape
Invasive Species Detection
SGRC partnered with Central Kootenay Invasive Species Society in a pilot project to assess the feasibility of using drones to detect invasive yellow flag iris (YFI) plants. The work was done in the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area which has been badly affected by YFI and wanted some idea of the level of infestation. Two approaches were tested: detection of emergent green shoots with a multi-spectral sensor and detection of yellow flowers with a true colour (RGB) sensor
(false colour red = green, green = red, blue = red edge)
Classified iris shoots (coloured red)
Classified iris flowers (coloured red)
Regional Parks Infrastructure
Coop students Evan Amies-Galonski and Joseph Plessis worked with the Regional District of Central Kootenay to provide drone imagery of all their regional parks. An map inventory of all the park infrastructure was then created from the imagery. Video and stills were also taken for use as promotional material
Brilliant Bridge Regional Park
Roseberry Regional Park / Sunshine Bay Regional Park
Mapping Habitat Characteristics of the Slocan River
David Greaves used drones for his Bachelor in GIS project to map habitat characteristics of the Slocan River. Object based classification was used to determine the different stream habitats such as cobbles, sedimentary deposits, boulders and large woody debris
Valican Stage
Aerial Imagery 2011
True colour image / Segment band values / Unsupervised spectral classification