DRONES AND ENVIRONMENTAL DATA COLLECTION: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (Invited Presentation)

Small unoccupied aerial systems (sUAS) are the latest technological iteration being employed by researchers and practitioners alike to improve understanding of earth’s surface. In particular, sUAS are useful for studying patterns of behavior or response, with one area of focus being water quality. Given water quality parameters are typically either measured or assessed by hand (at fine scales) or constrained via satellite imagery (at broad scales), sUAS offer a unique opportunity to rapidly image and assess smaller water bodies that may be difficult to see with satellite imagery but time and labor intensive to monitor on foot. We present two applications of sUAS to map water quality responses through time, both relying on indices calculated from multispectral imagery collected via fixed wing and quadcopter systems. Our first application focuses on water clarity, relating multispectral imagery to in situ measurements of turbidity, with strong relationships between these values suggesting drones can be used to assess turbidity in space and through time. Secondarily, we demonstrate the utility of sUAS to map spatial and temporal patterns of submerged algae in a small urban stream, with the goal to relate these observations to temporal patterns of nitrate and water temperature. Both approaches show how sUAS are revolutionizing our monitoring capabilities to link temporal behavior to spatial patterns at Earth’s surface.