NUSO 2013 Research Missions
2013 went to the birds thanks to the T-Hawk, NUSO’s first Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) platform, and a flock of waterfowl census and species determination missions.
Waterfowl Census and Species Determination Surveys at Tomales Bay
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) partnered with the NUSO in December 2013 at the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex to test the use of UAS technology for surveying waterbird abundance and distribution. The NWR System has a legal mandate to monitor the status and trends of fish, wildlife, and plant populations on refuges. Current population surveys rely on trained observers who must count and identify large flocks of wintering waterfowl in the span of a few seconds from a fixed-wing aircraft. After low-altitude UAS flights were flown at Tomales Bay, the collected imagery was evaluated as a potential source for performing waterbird surveys and its ability to provide the detail needed to differentiate species.
Study Point of Contact:
Orien Richmond, Ph.D., Wildlife Biologist
Refuges Inventory & Monitoring Program, Pacific Southwest Region, San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Additional Information:
Drones to test bird surveys at Tomales Bay - Point Reyes Light, December 5, 2013
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Waterbird Surveys - Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Core, September 22, 2015
Waterfowl Census and Species Determination Surveys at the Kern and Pixley National Wildlife Refuge Complex
In December 2013 NUSO scientists, in coordination with the USFWS, tested the feasibility of using UAS for waterbird surveys, waterbird species differentiation, and night-time thermal imagery collection at the Pixley NWR.
Crane roosting surveys have traditionally involved surveyors stationed along the outside perimeter of the block of wetlands at the refuge to count cranes flying into the roosting area. Imagery collected by Raven UAS over the Kern and Pixley NWR Complex was used to conduct sample waterfowl population counts as well as species determination. Raven night flights, which caused minimal disturbance to the roosting cranes, were used to collect thermal imagery over the crane’s locations. This imagery not only supported crane counts, but it also provided crane locations within the managed wetland areas related to specific habitat features which is data needed to help inform management decisions to maintain suitable crane roosting habitat.
Study Point of Contact:
Laura Shaskey, Wildlife Biologist
Kern National Wildlife Refuge Complex
Additional Information:
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Waterbird Surveys - Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Core, September 22, 2015
Waterfowl and Habitat Surveys at the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Working with the USFWS, the NUSO flew UAS missions in November 2013 over Ruby Lake NWR to conduct sample waterfowl population census counts and determine if individual species could be distinguished.
The Ruby Lake NWR, managed by the USFWS, provides necessary habitats for thousands of nesting and migrating waterfowl. The area is made up of marsh, meadows, grasslands, shrub-steppe upland and is in the high desert at an elevation of near 6,000 feet which makes it a unique setting visited by over 220 species of birds and migratory waterfowl.
During the mission the NUSO collected UAS data at several flight heights utilizing several different cameras, including GoPro Hero 3 video, Canon SX230 natural color imagery at various zoom levels, and color infrared from the Canon SX260. Based on the evaluation of these different collects it was shown that the ability to capture data at an approximate 100' altitude using a zoomed camera setting shows great potential performing waterfowl census counts and specific species identification. Additional investigations were made with the data to determine base map nesting areas and vegetative health (using color infrared) as secondary, but equally important, information to aid in overall refuge management.
Study Point of Contact:
Darrell Freeman, Wildlife Biologist
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Additional Information:
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Waterbird Surveys - Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Core, September 22, 2015
Mapping Emergent Sandbar Habitats in Nebraska’s Central Platte River Valley
NUSO researchers evaluated use of the gMAV (T-Hawk) UAS equipped with a high-resolution digital camera for mapping the spatial extent and elevation of emergent sandbars along two reaches of the Platte River in July 2013.
The Central Platte River Valley in Nebraska is an internationally significant staging area for migratory water birds of the Central Flyway supporting over half a million Sandhill cranes and several million other waterfowl that migrate annually. However, changes in water and land use have transformed the river channel, altered adjacent wet meadows, and the structure of riparian habitats bringing the sustainability of migratory and resident birds, and other biota into question. A primary concern for managers is determining how river flows influence heights of sandbars used by endangered or threatened nesting birds (interior least tern and piping plover). But, due to the dynamic nature of river flows, measuring sedimentation processes over fine temporal scales (days), at high spatial resolution (centimeters) over long river reaches (kilometers), using traditional methods to acquire the needed data is both challenging and costly.
Two reaches of the Platte River, managed by the Platte River Recovery Program, are pilot sites for sediment augmentation projects to evaluate strategies to offset deficiencies in sediment supply caused by upstream water regulation infrastructure. The USGS is already monitoring the morphology and sedimentation at these sites by quantifying suspended sediment transport using a combination of ground surveying (GPS transects), traditional bed and suspended sediment sampling, and surrogate technologies (laser diffraction and acoustic backscatter). Another benefit from this ongoing work is the establishment of ground control that supports the generation of orthophotographs and digital elevation models of the emergent sandbars. These field sites are also near USGS stream flow-gaging stations, making water surface elevation data available from the continuous monitoring.
During this mission the NUSO collected imagery over these two reaches of the Platte River by flying the T-Hawk equipped with a Canon PowerShot SX230 at perpendicular transects at 200 feet and 400 feet AGL. This flight path proved to be very effective for collecting survey-grade data with horizontal and vertical accuracies measuring in the centimeter range. This level of accuracy in both vertical and horizontal measurements demonstrated that acquired data has great potential for many types of hydrologic monitoring including supporting hydrography modeling and measuring for sediment movement and augmentation studies.
Study Point of Contact:
Paul Kinzel, Hydrologist
USGS Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory
Monitoring Breeding Greater Sage-grouse in Grand County Colorado
In April 2013, working with the USFWS and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, NUSO remote pilots performed a mission to determine if UAS data collection was suitable for detecting and counting greater sage-grouse on lek sites.
The Greater sage-grouse is listed by the USFWS as a species warranted but precluded for Endangered and Threatened Species status. To best manage Greater sage-grouse, accurate numbers of birds displaying at leks (breeding sites) are needed. Locating new sage-grouse leks involves hours of searching mostly on foot, with limited vantage points to view large expanses of the landscape. This study assessed the ability of the Raven UAS thermal and visible wavelength sensors to detect Greater sage-grouse utilizing leks and observed their reaction to these flights near four leks in Middle Park Colorado.
Additional Information:
Evaluation of the Raven sUAS to Detect and Monitor Greater Sage-Grouse Leks within the Middle Park Population (USGS Open-File Report 2014-1205)
Over Grand County Drones Are Bird Watching, Not People Watching - KUNC NPR for Northern Colorado, April 25, 2013
Identification of Abandoned Materials in the Mojave National Preserve
In cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS) at the Mojave National Preserve, the NUSO flew a UAS mission in March 2013 to locate and survey abandoned solid waste for historical assessment potential and cleanup.
The passage of the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA) in 1994 created the Mojave National Preserve and placed it under the management jurisdiction of the NPS. Prior to that time, the area had seen a series of land uses, including Native American life, mining, grazing, and, during the 1920s and 1930s, homesteading. Most of the homesteading was focused in Lanfair Valley, a flat, broadly oval expanse of about 150 square miles (120,000 acres) of Joshua tree-creosote shrub habitat. Homesteading resulted in the conversion of much of the publicly owned valley to private ownership, but drought and hardship during the 1930s triggered the reverse migration of the homesteaders, whose land parcels were subsequently handed down through families, divided or sold. After this the land, if used at all, was generally used for camping or other recreational purposes and not always well maintained. By 1994 when the CDPA was passed, roughly half of Lanfair Valley was a patchwork of private and public land; most parcels were 40 acres or smaller, and many had accumulations of abandoned solid materials, some with historic value.
Today, one of the greatest land management needs on the 1.6 million acres in the Preserve is to identify the locations of abandoned material, much of which is in Lanfair Valley, evaluate its historic significance and determine if cleanup is required. Since freely available satellite imagery does not meet the current resolution requirements for performing these inspections and accessing sites via unmaintained two-track roads hampers ground efforts, UAS data collection was viewed as a possible alternative.
NUSO researchers were asked to determine if UAS technology could provide cost-effective, high-resolution aerial imagery in this isolated part of southeastern San Bernardino County that could aid the difficult task of identifying abandoned materials, determining historical significance, and supporting cleanup. Low altitude imagery was acquired over four different areas of approximately one square mile using a GoPro Hero 2 mounted on a Raven and a Canon SX260 camera mounted on the T-Hawk. Viewing the data during the flights demonstrated that it was very useful for identifying abandoned material in locations that would otherwise be very difficult to find from higher altitudes, primarily in ditches or low valley areas.
The image data acquired with the UAS could be used, either in real-time or during post-processing, to provide coordinates for the location of identified materials. Having access to this coordinate information allows the inspectors to save time by easily navigating directly to the required inspection sites. An unexpected benefit from this high-resolution imagery was its ability to distinguish various vegetation types, including Joshua trees. Image data with this level of resolution can be used with automated extraction techniques as a reliable method to create the vegetation inventories needed by resource managers.
Study Point of Contact:
Annie Kearns, Natural Resources Specialist
Mojave National Preserve
2013 went to the birds thanks to the T-Hawk, NUSO’s first Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) platform, and a flock of waterfowl census and species determination missions.
Waterfowl Census and Species Determination Surveys at Tomales Bay
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) partnered with the NUSO in December 2013 at the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex to test the use of UAS technology for surveying waterbird abundance and distribution. The NWR System has a legal mandate to monitor the status and trends of fish, wildlife, and plant populations on refuges. Current population surveys rely on trained observers who must count and identify large flocks of wintering waterfowl in the span of a few seconds from a fixed-wing aircraft. After low-altitude UAS flights were flown at Tomales Bay, the collected imagery was evaluated as a potential source for performing waterbird surveys and its ability to provide the detail needed to differentiate species.
Study Point of Contact:
Orien Richmond, Ph.D., Wildlife Biologist
Refuges Inventory & Monitoring Program, Pacific Southwest Region, San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Additional Information:
Drones to test bird surveys at Tomales Bay - Point Reyes Light, December 5, 2013
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Waterbird Surveys - Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Core, September 22, 2015
Waterfowl Census and Species Determination Surveys at the Kern and Pixley National Wildlife Refuge Complex
In December 2013 NUSO scientists, in coordination with the USFWS, tested the feasibility of using UAS for waterbird surveys, waterbird species differentiation, and night-time thermal imagery collection at the Pixley NWR.
Crane roosting surveys have traditionally involved surveyors stationed along the outside perimeter of the block of wetlands at the refuge to count cranes flying into the roosting area. Imagery collected by Raven UAS over the Kern and Pixley NWR Complex was used to conduct sample waterfowl population counts as well as species determination. Raven night flights, which caused minimal disturbance to the roosting cranes, were used to collect thermal imagery over the crane’s locations. This imagery not only supported crane counts, but it also provided crane locations within the managed wetland areas related to specific habitat features which is data needed to help inform management decisions to maintain suitable crane roosting habitat.
Study Point of Contact:
Laura Shaskey, Wildlife Biologist
Kern National Wildlife Refuge Complex
Additional Information:
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Waterbird Surveys - Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Core, September 22, 2015
Waterfowl and Habitat Surveys at the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Working with the USFWS, the NUSO flew UAS missions in November 2013 over Ruby Lake NWR to conduct sample waterfowl population census counts and determine if individual species could be distinguished.
The Ruby Lake NWR, managed by the USFWS, provides necessary habitats for thousands of nesting and migrating waterfowl. The area is made up of marsh, meadows, grasslands, shrub-steppe upland and is in the high desert at an elevation of near 6,000 feet which makes it a unique setting visited by over 220 species of birds and migratory waterfowl.
During the mission the NUSO collected UAS data at several flight heights utilizing several different cameras, including GoPro Hero 3 video, Canon SX230 natural color imagery at various zoom levels, and color infrared from the Canon SX260. Based on the evaluation of these different collects it was shown that the ability to capture data at an approximate 100' altitude using a zoomed camera setting shows great potential performing waterfowl census counts and specific species identification. Additional investigations were made with the data to determine base map nesting areas and vegetative health (using color infrared) as secondary, but equally important, information to aid in overall refuge management.
Study Point of Contact:
Darrell Freeman, Wildlife Biologist
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Additional Information:
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Waterbird Surveys - Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Core, September 22, 2015
Mapping Emergent Sandbar Habitats in Nebraska’s Central Platte River Valley
NUSO researchers evaluated use of the gMAV (T-Hawk) UAS equipped with a high-resolution digital camera for mapping the spatial extent and elevation of emergent sandbars along two reaches of the Platte River in July 2013.
The Central Platte River Valley in Nebraska is an internationally significant staging area for migratory water birds of the Central Flyway supporting over half a million Sandhill cranes and several million other waterfowl that migrate annually. However, changes in water and land use have transformed the river channel, altered adjacent wet meadows, and the structure of riparian habitats bringing the sustainability of migratory and resident birds, and other biota into question. A primary concern for managers is determining how river flows influence heights of sandbars used by endangered or threatened nesting birds (interior least tern and piping plover). But, due to the dynamic nature of river flows, measuring sedimentation processes over fine temporal scales (days), at high spatial resolution (centimeters) over long river reaches (kilometers), using traditional methods to acquire the needed data is both challenging and costly.
Two reaches of the Platte River, managed by the Platte River Recovery Program, are pilot sites for sediment augmentation projects to evaluate strategies to offset deficiencies in sediment supply caused by upstream water regulation infrastructure. The USGS is already monitoring the morphology and sedimentation at these sites by quantifying suspended sediment transport using a combination of ground surveying (GPS transects), traditional bed and suspended sediment sampling, and surrogate technologies (laser diffraction and acoustic backscatter). Another benefit from this ongoing work is the establishment of ground control that supports the generation of orthophotographs and digital elevation models of the emergent sandbars. These field sites are also near USGS stream flow-gaging stations, making water surface elevation data available from the continuous monitoring.
During this mission the NUSO collected imagery over these two reaches of the Platte River by flying the T-Hawk equipped with a Canon PowerShot SX230 at perpendicular transects at 200 feet and 400 feet AGL. This flight path proved to be very effective for collecting survey-grade data with horizontal and vertical accuracies measuring in the centimeter range. This level of accuracy in both vertical and horizontal measurements demonstrated that acquired data has great potential for many types of hydrologic monitoring including supporting hydrography modeling and measuring for sediment movement and augmentation studies.
Study Point of Contact:
Paul Kinzel, Hydrologist
USGS Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory
Monitoring Breeding Greater Sage-grouse in Grand County Colorado
In April 2013, working with the USFWS and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, NUSO remote pilots performed a mission to determine if UAS data collection was suitable for detecting and counting greater sage-grouse on lek sites.
The Greater sage-grouse is listed by the USFWS as a species warranted but precluded for Endangered and Threatened Species status. To best manage Greater sage-grouse, accurate numbers of birds displaying at leks (breeding sites) are needed. Locating new sage-grouse leks involves hours of searching mostly on foot, with limited vantage points to view large expanses of the landscape. This study assessed the ability of the Raven UAS thermal and visible wavelength sensors to detect Greater sage-grouse utilizing leks and observed their reaction to these flights near four leks in Middle Park Colorado.
Additional Information:
Evaluation of the Raven sUAS to Detect and Monitor Greater Sage-Grouse Leks within the Middle Park Population (USGS Open-File Report 2014-1205)
Over Grand County Drones Are Bird Watching, Not People Watching - KUNC NPR for Northern Colorado, April 25, 2013
Identification of Abandoned Materials in the Mojave National Preserve
In cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS) at the Mojave National Preserve, the NUSO flew a UAS mission in March 2013 to locate and survey abandoned solid waste for historical assessment potential and cleanup.
The passage of the California Desert Protection Act (CDPA) in 1994 created the Mojave National Preserve and placed it under the management jurisdiction of the NPS. Prior to that time, the area had seen a series of land uses, including Native American life, mining, grazing, and, during the 1920s and 1930s, homesteading. Most of the homesteading was focused in Lanfair Valley, a flat, broadly oval expanse of about 150 square miles (120,000 acres) of Joshua tree-creosote shrub habitat. Homesteading resulted in the conversion of much of the publicly owned valley to private ownership, but drought and hardship during the 1930s triggered the reverse migration of the homesteaders, whose land parcels were subsequently handed down through families, divided or sold. After this the land, if used at all, was generally used for camping or other recreational purposes and not always well maintained. By 1994 when the CDPA was passed, roughly half of Lanfair Valley was a patchwork of private and public land; most parcels were 40 acres or smaller, and many had accumulations of abandoned solid materials, some with historic value.
Today, one of the greatest land management needs on the 1.6 million acres in the Preserve is to identify the locations of abandoned material, much of which is in Lanfair Valley, evaluate its historic significance and determine if cleanup is required. Since freely available satellite imagery does not meet the current resolution requirements for performing these inspections and accessing sites via unmaintained two-track roads hampers ground efforts, UAS data collection was viewed as a possible alternative.
NUSO researchers were asked to determine if UAS technology could provide cost-effective, high-resolution aerial imagery in this isolated part of southeastern San Bernardino County that could aid the difficult task of identifying abandoned materials, determining historical significance, and supporting cleanup. Low altitude imagery was acquired over four different areas of approximately one square mile using a GoPro Hero 2 mounted on a Raven and a Canon SX260 camera mounted on the T-Hawk. Viewing the data during the flights demonstrated that it was very useful for identifying abandoned material in locations that would otherwise be very difficult to find from higher altitudes, primarily in ditches or low valley areas.
The image data acquired with the UAS could be used, either in real-time or during post-processing, to provide coordinates for the location of identified materials. Having access to this coordinate information allows the inspectors to save time by easily navigating directly to the required inspection sites. An unexpected benefit from this high-resolution imagery was its ability to distinguish various vegetation types, including Joshua trees. Image data with this level of resolution can be used with automated extraction techniques as a reliable method to create the vegetation inventories needed by resource managers.
Study Point of Contact:
Annie Kearns, Natural Resources Specialist
Mojave National Preserve