Importance of drones in Surveying

Drones make an abrupt change in surveying. They can get to and hover above certain sites to gather detailed information. The height and cameras of drones can be modified distantly. The drones are supported with sensors to calculate, broadcast and pile up data.

Global positioning has developed bigger awareness in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). GIS professionals are engaged with diversified land-related services like determining property boundaries, subdividing land, and surveying construction sites for disposition of buildings. They are also involved in other activities like creating topographic and hydrographic maps, volumetric calculations for stockpiles, and flood insurance maps etc.

To accelerate this development, the pioneer in geographic information systems (GIS), Esri, introduced an application alias Drone2Map (D2M) for ArcGIS that is very useful for the civil engineering industry. D2M simplifies the process for forming professional imagery products from drone-captured still imagery for visualization and analysis in ArcGIS. Data collected by Drone2Map can also be supplied in Esri’s ArcGIS online web service and combined with ArcGIS for further processing.

These maps are comprehensive, essential and textured. The drone will deliver the data to cloud-based storage that can be availed by authorized professionals.

Stakeholders – architects, engineers, contractors, civil authorities, customers and more – can retain individual or group discussions on results, planning and pricing.

Other advantages to surveying:

• Disruption. The drone operator can operate from a very remote distance and does not experience about natural or artificial blockades to the sight lines.
• Imagery. Images are superior resolution and provided to diversified users. They can be dispatched, distributed and printed. Software can transform them into topographical maps, heat maps and more.
• Risk. There is no safety risk for the operator as well as risks to ground and air personnel.
• Environment. As drones are functioned through battery, so, no toxic fumes are generated.

Image Courtesy: reesaerials.com