Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones)

Why Ecology uses Unmanned Aerial Systems

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones, are aircrafts or vehicles piloted by remote control or onboard computers. The benefits that drones offer the fields of environmental monitoring and conservation are being realized by an ever-increasing number of researchers and scientists. The UAS offer quick, easy, and cost-effective insights, on demand. Their applications vary widely, as they can be used to capture extremely high resolution imagery and video that can give scientists and first responders a new perspective, and information that supports data driven decision making. Ecology operates UAS under an agency policy, following strict privacy guidelines, and in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations.

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Understand how Ecology uses drones to support our work
Review Ecology's UAS projects

Applications for UAS at Ecology

Some examples of how UAS may be used at Ecology include:

Aerial photography/videography
Coastal erosion monitoring
Spill response/Emergency response
Photogrammetry site inspections
Structure-from-motion modeling
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR)
Vegetation mapping
Air and water quality surveys
Communications products and storytelling

Benefits of using UAS

Increased safety and reduced risk for Ecology staff
Scale of the landscape to be surveyed exceeds the capacity of staff and/or conventional aircraft
The above ground level (AGL) operational requirements exceed the safe operation limits of conventional aircraft
Survey equipment (cameras, video cameras, infrared cameras, radar, sonar, LIDAR) are best deployed using UAS
Manned aircraft are unavailable

Ecology UAS Project Checklist

We fill out a project checklist every time we use UAS to support our work. Project checklists will be posted here to ensure timely sharing of information with the public. To date Ecology has not purchased or contracted UAS technology to support our work.

UAS PROJECT CHECKLISTS (coming soon)

Contact information

Sonja Larson
Response Technology Specialist
sonja.larson@ecy.wa.gov
360-480-2263

Brad McMillan
GIS Analyst/Developer & GIS Support
brad.mcmillan@ecy.wa.gov
360-407-6047

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