Environmental Protection & Agriculture
Using drones for environment protection brings many advantages. It is possible to view and record
photographs and videos of hard to access areas and sensitive environments such as wetlands and
waterways. Examining creeks and riparian zones, checking out erosion and associated stabilisation
works and recording a close inspection of areas of important native flora and fauna is easy. Using
drones also enables the capture of images and video footage to record and report on project
progress, note changes in an area over time and help with community storytelling about
environment protection and land management programs and outcomes.
Drones are also changing the way farmers monitor and manage their crops and it's one of the fields
we're most excited about. Using multispectral and thermal imaging by drone assists in monitoring
plant health and vine vigour, identify invasive weeds and plant diseases, conduct
livestock audits and verify irrigation efficiency. This all adds up to a more intelligent data driven
approach to decision-making.
Environmental Protection
Fundamental to good environment protection and conservation practice is having sufficient knowledge and understanding about the condition and resilience of the land and waterways as well as its fauna and flora. This includes the impact of invasive weeds and pests. Drones are ideal for capturing this data. They can cover large areas quickly, fly over and record otherwise inaccessible locations and capture photographs and video of sensitive environments without putting boots on the ground. Drones can create high resolution orthomosaic photo maps for close inspection of flora, fauna and the impact of human activity. Using drones also enables the capture of images and video to record and report on project progress, note changes in an area over time and help with community storytelling about environment protection and land management programs and outcomes. Drones are also versatile in their perspective, allowing for examination of such things as sea walls, erosion controls and cliff faces. Drones are an essential addition to environment protection and conservation practice.
Agriculture
The Application of drones in Agriculture is one of the most rapidly developing areas of commercial drone use. From monitoring plant health and crop count to high volume targeted spraying, the applications are many.
Working collaboratively with farmers and viticulturists we're able bridge the connection between traditional farming techniques and modern technology. Drones allow you to work intelligently and make well informed decisions based on a data driven investigation. We work closely with you to understand what you need and how we can best achieve it.
Plant Health
Vegetation Indices
NDVI has quickly become an efficient way of understanding crop health and vine vigour. Being able to see how plants are reacting to their environment before showing irreversible signs of damage is helping farmers and viticulturists make more informed decisions about crop care.
NDVI stands for Normalised Difference Vegetation Index and is one of a number of measures of plant health, determined by different rates of absorption and reflection of different (visible and invisible) light frequencies by the plant. Health is measured in the range from -1 to +1. Low values indicate stressed vegetation (which is sometimes desired) and high values indicate higher densities of green vegetation and photosynthetic activity. NDVI maps, created by flying our multispectral drone over your crops and vineyards, creates a visual representation of these values and hence a visual representation of plant health over an area.
Working with you, we start with some exploration of your needs and discuss how we think we can help. We often work and deliver in stages so we can validate each step and confirm value.
Weed Identification
Identifying and eradicating invasive weeds is a goal shared by farmers, viticulturalists, biosecurity officers and other land managers. Containing invasive weeds is critical to the proper management of native flora and fauna. Drones can offer high resolution weed mapping as well as multispectral analysis to identify particular weeds and their precise location. Whether this is done as part of farm operations, land care programs or bush regeneration, drones can help you capture better data more efficiently.
Thermal Mapping
Utilising an infrared camera, we're able to create radiometric thermal maps of land area. This allows you to see comparative moisture levels in the soil as well as spot irrigation leaks well before they become an issue.
A lot of land can have multiple soil types within a singe field and how that soil behaves has one of the highest correlative affect on crop growth. Understanding the relationship between these factors will help inform your decision making across the board
Drainage is equally important as irrigation. Using a combination of digital elevation maps and thermal maps, we can give you the tools you need to understand how water is behaving across your fields, and make decisions accordingly.