The Use of Drones at Field Stations and Research Reserves

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2017) | Viewed by 9037

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Interests: spatial modeling; remote sensing; drones; lidar; historical archives; surveys; participatory mapping; forests; agriculture; wetlands; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Field stations and research reserves are centers of research, conservation, education, and public outreach. Spanning a gradient of natural environments to heavily managed, these properties are living laboratories for important research from genetic to landscape scales. The research at these stations produces "baseline and sentinel data that can be used to study ecosystems at a time when human activities are altering nature at an unprecedented rate” (2014 NRC Report on Field Stations: http://dels.nas.edu/Report/Report/18806). Research managers are tasked with collecting a range of data from ground based instruments for studies in progress and long term monitoring. Increasingly, they encounter specific and diverse needs for imagery that cannot be met through satellite data acquisitions alone. The cost of satellite missions, temporal and spatial resolution, and lack of control have prompted many station managers and researchers to turn to drones to acquire imagery on demand. This special issue focuses on the use of drones on research reserves and field stations. We are interested in contributions that focus on the use of drones at field stations and research reserves, and topics such as:

- Best practices/protocols
- Specific sensor technology: cameras, Lidar, etc.
- Regulatory & cost issues
- Data collection design
- Indices, derivative products, data fusion
- Quality assurance / quality control
- Data management and research-IT
- Remaining needs
- Remaining challenges

Prof. Dr. Maggi Kelly
Guest Editor

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Article
Analysis of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems Based on Operational Scenarios Using Value Modelling
by Akash Vidyadharan, Robert Philpott III, Benjamin J. Kwasa and Christina L. Bloebaum
Drones 2017, 1(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones1010005 - 23 Nov 2017
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 8487
Abstract
In recent years, the use of UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) has moved beyond the realm of military operations and has made its way into the hands of consumers and commercial industries. Although the applications of UAS in commercial industries are virtually endless, there [...] Read more.
In recent years, the use of UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) has moved beyond the realm of military operations and has made its way into the hands of consumers and commercial industries. Although the applications of UAS in commercial industries are virtually endless, there are many issues regarding their operations that need to be considered before these valuable pieces of equipment are allowed for widespread civil use. Currently, UAS operations in the public domain are guided and controlled by the FAA Part 107 rules after overwhelming public pressure caused by the earlier 333 exemption. In order to approach such larger issues, this paper will exploit the use of value models, which will help to quantify how the different environmental and operational scenarios play a role in UAS operations based on the task being performed. The primary aim of this research is to use the attributes from key factors of the UAS such as the autonomy levels (AL) and technology readiness levels (TRL) along with their operating scenario factors, such as the environmental complexity and task complexity, based on the operating environment in which a UAS performs its task. To analyze the performance of autonomous UAS in different operational scenarios, the physical characteristics and class of a UAS may be linked to its AL and TRL. Using these parameters, the risks faced by the UAS in a particular mission are quantified and a value is assigned to the abstract entities involved. Although there are many critical questions with respect to good practices to be followed by UAS operators in order to obtain valuable data and information on the structures being scanned and monitored, there are many other challenges with regards to large scale operations of UAS such as the ethical, legal and societal implications that have to be addressed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Use of Drones at Field Stations and Research Reserves)
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