Let’s face it, low altitude aerial surveying with drones for delivering landform models has become increasingly popular. There are loads of people piloting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), collecting aerial photographs as source material for modelling. This is undertaken with a range of equipment, different levels of experience and understanding of the processes involved.

In our line of work, digital terrain models are key components for a variety of mining studies. However, it’s disconcerting to see at times that the quality of output isn’t up to standard. Additionally, the value they can provide to various stakeholders is at times insufficient.

To get the most out of an aerial survey you need to plan. Planning is everything. This site publishes our own experience over the past decade in both undertaking and managing aerial surveys for the purpose of generating high quality orthophotos, digital terrain and surface models. We discuss key aspects of planning and preparation, to enable delivery of successful low altitude UAV surveys.

Our aim is to assist others collecting data and/or planning surveys, thereby raising standards to the benefit end users. The takeaways discussed here are applicable to other industries using this type of spatial data.

By working smarter, you can:

• make more effective use of time,
• drive down costs on data collection,
• attain better integration between 3rd party survey products,
• increase safety for remote pilots & support crew,
• deliver greater precision and accuracy in resultant models, and
• increase confidence in utilised data

Our blog page publishes regular articles to help subscribers achieve better outcomes when undertaking UAV surveying. Check out these articles.