2024 Q2

Post Cyclone Gabriel surveying is still a large part of our workload. We have completed our largest survey to date in this space, using a combination of LiDAR, photogrammetry and terrestrial surveying techniques to capture over 8km of streams and over 400Ha of surrounding flood plain land.

To do this we utilised all UAVs we have at our disposal including the DJI M300 with P1 and L2 LiDAR, Mavic 3 Enterprise RTK and the Trinity F90+ fixed wing survey plane.

All data was vectorised, enabling us to provide survey data in a traditional form ready for engineers to use for a range of situations, including design of stop banks and flood scenario modelling.

Part of this project involved modelling four bridges – a difficult task to do with traditional survey equipment, and an expensive task to do with a laser scanner.

Our DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise has fantastic collision avoidance systems so it is the perfect tool for close range photogrammetry. A screenshot from a video below shows just how close we can get to structures, enabling capture of fine detail.

The photographic data is processed, and a point cloud is generated, from which we extract strings and points. The bridge below is on a State Highway, so was totally inaccessible on foot, without extensive (and expensive) traffic management. By using a drone instead, no traffic management was required at all, and field time was reduced dramatically, with the flight only taking just over 15 minutes.

Recently, Drone IT has become a supporter of the QEII National Trust. For nearly two decades, our parent company (The Surveying Company HB) has provided surveying support for new covenants. These covenants protect and enhance open spaces of ecological and cultural significance. Almost 70% of New Zealand is in private land ownership, so protecting biodiversity and heritage on private land is critical to reversing the decline of indigenous biodiversity and preserving New Zealand’s history.

We were involved with two new covenant areas this quarter, totalling over 100Ha. We use UAVs to map the covenants, providing us with both survey information, and condition recording of the land at the time of covenanting.

Not all of our work is local in Hawkes Bay, and we often have teams away for jobs, often in Wairoa and Gisborne. Up in these parts of NZ are many small quarries extracting necessary materials for road building. We surveyed one such quarry, providing a snapshot of the current extents, as well as volumes of stockpiles on site, and volumes left to extract.

Aerial photography jobs fill in those gaps where we have a few spare hours here and there, and allows us to get out, see and capture some of Hawkes Bay’s best locations. Among this quarters jobs was a very early morning start to record a large industrial plant lift and placement by crane. We flew under the shielding provisions allowed by the CAA until daybreak, however, we were still able to capture some amazing footage of the lift.

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