Five Benefits of Drones in The Realms of Urban Planning
Drones are suited for mapping road, highway, and railway infrastructures - They can do the job faster, cheaper and safer
Civilian drones are experiencing a real boom. But what are the benefits of drones in the field of urban planning and development? In particular, what are the reasons to choose drones for mapping and surveying? “The Truth About Drones in Mapping and Surveying”, a recently released white paper commissioned by BZ Media and written and produced by Skylogic Research, points out five appealing surveying and mapping applications.
Traditionally, data are collected by ground-based survey tools. But owing to low maintenance expenses, rapid deployment times and different types of installable cameras, drones can do the job faster, cheaper and safer compared with collecting data with satellites, manned aircraft, or road crews. Drones are suited for mapping road, highway, and railway infrastructures.
Five benefits of drones regarding urban planning
1. Automated Mapping
With the support of control points like known coordinates or placed markers, the drone is able to fly autonomously a calculated fly path at a given altitude. Depending on the equipment, the drone can take common high-resolution color and infrared pictures. According to the published paper, it is recommended that each captured picture overlaps the previous image 80 percent to the front and 60 percent to the side. The data can be sent to the pilot during the flight or transmitted after landing.
2. Cadastral surveying
As an essential component of the legal creation of properties, licensed land surveyors can make use of drones to define property boundaries for purposes like renting, buying or selling buildings or land. A further benefit is the identification of boundaries and land features with drone-generated pictures. These information are the basis for the preparation of 2D like shown below. This way of mapping boundaries and property assets can have an essential impact on the real estate and appraisal industry owing to the low costs of data collection.
3. Corridor surveying
Drones are well-suited for capturing infrastructure facilities. For instance, drones are a basic working tool for the Mexican mapping and surveying company SKYLAB. They are mapping and capturing all kinds of infrastructure for the government, urban planners, etc. Photographs can be geometrically corrected afterward. They often contain inaccuracies as a result of topographic reliefs, lens distortions, and camera tilts.
4. Volumetric calculations
A further benefit of drones is the volume measurement of, for example, spoil heaps, stockpiles, or material extraction pits. After mapping the site with a drone, it is possible to generate a digital surface model (DSM). A ground-based surveying would be more dangerous and time-consuming. It seems quite outdated if a ground-based employee measures the stockpile elevation every 5 or 10 feet. According to VanZanten, owner of the mapping company SkyMedia Northwest, covering a 30-acre site with a drone takes around 30 minutes but a whole day for a ground-based surveyor.
5. LiDAR mapping
It is possible to create a virtual high-resolution map of the surrounding area with LIDAR. It creates a precise digital representation of objects, buildings, and the ground more detailed than common pictures. LiDAR is a surveying technology that measures distances by emitting beams of light in all directions from a laser source. It collects the reflected light with a sensor. By measuring the required time for a round trip of the laser light, distances can be calculated. A powerful computer creates a three-dimensional map in real time. According to the heavy LiDAR equipment, large drones are needed for aerial photographs.
Convince yourself of the benefits of drones and take a look at the award-winning urban landscape photography from Andy Yeung. In the end, it would not be surprising if more and more GIS professionals and scientists take advantages of drones.
In the mid 1960’s a hardcover book was published showing ‘Bird’s Eye’ views of natural environments, some quite dramatic. That book, and now yours would seem to create an interesting contrast between natural environments and man-made urbanized environments, and possibly of the same environments and places. You may already be aware of that book in which case disregard this email. As first a landscape architect and later as an urban planner, I have often wondered if people actually realize what they are covering up, i.e. natural systems such as creeks, small rivers, natural ponds, etc, Why must such natural resource systems be sacrificed, especially when those waterways are sought after when the water is gone. In any event this might be a possible future book for you. Good luck.
I agree that the use of drones would help dramatically in the process of urban mapping and planning. Because they give you a different perspective than just being on the ground, you can easily see the layout of any city. I think that when making urban plans, it would be very important to make user that there are multiple main roads to get to any destination. Traffic occurs when there are not enough main roads to accommodate all of the cars that use the roadways.
I thought it was really cool that land surveyors could use drones to define property boundaries. My uncle wants to buy some land to build a home on, so I think hiring a land surveyor could really benefit him. How can you tell they have high quality drones?
Agreed! All the benefits are listed. Drones had made work of land surveyors more easy. Thanks for this article .
Thanks for pointing out the benefits of drones in urban planning. I didn’t know that after mapping a site with a drone, it is possible to generate a digital surface model. I think that would help make sure that you could have a more accurate plan for buildings and it would help avoid problems down the line.
That’s really insane that a whole day of work can take thiry minutes with a drone. My boss wants to survey a lot of land we just got and see exactly what we have to work with from a holistic view. We’ll have to look more into aerial imagery acquisition services.
How interesting that after mapping the site with a drone, surveying experts can generate a digital surface model. If I were to need the help of a survey service, I will consider someone that could use drones to map the land. Thanks for sharing this useful post on drones and mapping experts.
It’s good that you point out that using drones for surveying is cheaper and faster than traditional methods. I want to begin a construction project in the near future, and I am considering using drone surveying for the project. I’m going to look and see if there is a drone surveying company in my area.