Applications - Remote Sensing
The advances in remote sensing equipment and processing software in recent years has significantly broadened the range of possible applications aerial surveying can provide. Aerial survey provides an economical alternative to traditional ground based survey techniques, permitting imagery and data to be acquired for large areas in a minimal timeframe enabling faster application turnaround.
Digital Mapping Australia is continually looking at new applications of digital data acquisition aiming to provide practiced solutions to clients while maintaining a focus on developing alternative methods to develop a market niche. For this DIMAP focuses on acquisition using aircraft equipped with multiple sensor technologies and applications combing information from these different data sets.
Digital Imagery
Large format digital imagery provides council and goverment with high resolution urban and regional imagery for planning and infrastructure development. With a ground resolution typically ranging from 5 to 50cm, the high level of detail provides impressive imagery ideal for public display.
Carbon Footprint
The digitized echo return provided by full waveform LiDAR scanners provide the means to determine Carbon Foot-printing and Vegetation Biomass calculations over large areas. Using sophisticated analysis techniques permits the extraction of buildings, volume and floor area calculations in order to derive carbon footprint values. Similar analysis separates vegetation into ground cover, low, medium and high level structure classifications.
Further analysis of the full digitized waveform signatures aids vegetation classification for example tree types, foliage coverage and structure. Combining this information with periodic surveying produces measurable comparative figures assisting future planning and development while balancing the need between urban development and the natural environment. Additionally proposed urban development and re-vegetation projects can be modeled and carbon footprint impacts predicted.
Power Line Classification
Interconnecting power networks involves vast amounts of power lines and infrastructure, which often traverses rugged and difficult to access areas. Using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) corridor mapping scanners from an airborne platform provides a cost effective solution to monitoring existing and planning new power line routes.
The accurate digital elevation and terrain models, along with discrimination between ground, vegetation and infrastructure permit:
- A cost effective survey solution
- Power line route planning
- Detection of clearance violations
- Vegetation encroachment to minimize potential flash over and bushfire risks
- Tower location planning and catenary curves of lines’
- Calculate overhead heights for through and high vehicle traffic analysis
Urban Modeling
LiDAR based point classification routines and contouring combined with digital imagery empower local goverment and council with the data required for urban modelling and development.
Forestry
By extracting the digitized laser pulse return provided by the full waveform LiDAR additional statistical and mathematical models can be applied and extropolated.
Statistical analysis of the full waveform has enabled the development of biomass and fuel load models that can be acquired from the air covering large areas of forestry and bushland in a cost effective manner.
Combing this information with point cloud classification routines such as tree counts and contouring can enhance vegetation understanding and characteristics.
Mineral Mapping Geology
Hyperspectral scanning enables mineral identification using mineralogy indices for geology applications.
Aspect LiDAR
Pioneering a different perspective on LiDAR data acquisition to solve a fundamental limitation of airborne laser scanners and imagery – they all have a bird’s eye view of the earth as long as the bird is looking straight down. This limitation makes developing accurate and detailed mapping of vertical structures such as cliff faces, coastal ridges or any vertical side of a natural or man made structure impossible.
Developing a specialized scanner mount for use in a helicopter along with customized processing techniques finally the vertical faces of structures can be revealed from the air.
Thermal Imaging
Thermal aerial photography can be used for analyzing:
- The energy loss from buildings and ground features
- Monitor and compare heat losses for individual residential, commerical and industrial properties
- Used to develop and monitor an energy conservation programme
- Graphing can show biggest energy losses over the area
- Heat island analysis pin pointing areas of heat storage
- Aid council planning of vegetation for the reduction of heat islands
- Monitoring of water temperature differences, currents and flows