This is the first post tracking the progress of the UAS Survey+ project. This project is multi-faceted, and is aimed at fulfilling criteria that will complete a Masters Degree in Drone Technology.
The author is concerned about a few things that ultimately underpin the motivation for this research:
- Diminishing and/or finite resources Government departments have to maintain the protected (and non-protected) habitats of the British Isles.
- Increasing pressure to save money from every point of the compass…
- … which is coupled with incredibly difficult to grasp complexity of procedure and process that will actually get jobs done and key information gathered.
- Lacklustre uptake of new technology in the wider sphere of conservation.
- An overall drive to further boost the conservation efforts of those already working on long term projects.
- A desire to have a positive impact on the environment and to assist with the long term success of conservation efforts already underway.
Following this, the author needs to explain that there are now more than ever unprecedented challenges when working with any public service organisation, whether it is using a UAS, installing an automatic door or even something as important as a defibrillator. In principle, it is simple, but ‘doing it by the book’ is all that appears to matter, that is what we want, so there is culpability for anything that goes wrong, however these hard to access systems of understanding that need t’s crossing and i’s dotting are, every step, met with a raft of additional steps, contacts, forms and waiting periods, each with their own nuances and challenges that need to be overcome.
This all sounds very esoteric and generic, but the truth is that those of us who want to ‘do the right thing’ (and to have all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted) will find themselves deeply frustrated and ultimately significantly thwarted in their efforts to help and progress in these [conservation] areas.
This is the start of a feasibility study through which we aim to highlight the areas in which these issues can be resolved, streamlined and ultimately where possible eliminated entirely.
To help me out, dear reader, you can take and share my public opinion survey.
Stay tuned!
Article image: a point cloud survey carried out for Wirral Country Parks, processed in Drone Deploy, August 2017