Posts Tagged: igis

Mapping post-fire landscapes at Hopland Research & Extension Center

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The River Fire began July 27, 2018 at 1pm on Old River Road in Hopland. By the evening it had spread, and was threatening numerous buildings in the area. We have a ANR Research and Extension Center (HREC) there, and Shane Feirer from IGIS lives and works here. Evacuations were ordered quickly, and down in the bay area we all held our breath hoping the fire wouldn’t harm people or animals or consume the HREC buildings. By the time it was contained (as part of the Mendocino Complex), it had burned 48,920 acres. We’ve been flying drones over HREC for awhile, and the last month we did more drone flights to map the post-fire landscape. We flew some Hangar 360 flights with a DJI Phantom to get some sweet overviews of the scene (example1, example2, example3), and flew much of the area with our eBee on the first mission and Matrices on the second mission with both multispectral and RGB cameras.

These pics below compare the eBee imagery (2cm) with Planet imagery (3m).

These are pics of the eBee (far left) and the Matrice (far right) getting ready to fly into the blackened landscape, and some snaps from the Hanger pics.

ESRI User Conference 2018 – Day 2

Have you ever wished you had your own geoportal like ArcGIS Online within your own ArcGIS Online Organization,  now you can with Esri Arcgis Hub.  ArcGIS Hub and the Sites it can create will allow you to do just that.  Now within UCANR we can create sub sites within our organization account.  We have the ability to create sub sites for other groups in UCANR like Integrated Pest Management (IPM), 4H, Master Gardeners, to name but a few.  I look forward to rolling out these Sites to other groups and team within UCANR.

ESRI User Conference 2018 – Day 1

Day 1 at the User Conference was dominated by the Plenary talks of ESRI Owner Jack Dangermond and others. The morning plenary by Mr. Dangermond and other ESRI Staff is where they highlight the newest technology that we now have access to from ESRI.  In the past I have heard of the User Conference as the “Show” and it continues to live up to that name.  This year they highlighted the new machine learning and AI tools that have been integrated into ArcGIS and the new capabilities of ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Portal, and ArcGIS Pro.  Over the coming days I hope to highlight these technologies and more in greater detail.

Meet Jacob Flanagan – IGIS Latest Drone Scientist

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IGIS is thrilled to welcome Jacob Flanagan to our team. Jacob will be with IGIS through the end of June 2018 as a Drone Technician and Data Analyst.

Jacob comes to IGIS with a broad background in UAV technology, GIS, computer science, and remote sensing. Prior to joining IGIS, Jacob worked with GreenValley Int'l, where he spent several years designing and developing application software for LiDAR data, spatial databases, technical documentation, and user support.

This is not the first time we've had the fortune to work with Jacob. Those of you who have attended some of our drone workshops may remember his demos of an 'octocopter' drone, large enough to carry a heavy LiDAR sensor. He was also a presenter and flight instructor at the 2017 DroneCamp, and has been involved in drone mapping missions at the Hopland REC.

Jacob joins the rest of the IGIS team as our latest FAA certified UAS pilot, and will be involved in a number of research and extension projects. Please say hi to him if you run into him in the ANR building, our next DroneCamp in San Diego, or somewhere in a field looking up at the sky with a drone controller.

 

IGIS Teams Up with The Wildlife Society for Drone Mapping Workshop for Biologists

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Last week at the Hasting Natural Reserve in Monterey County, IGIS joined forces with The Wildlife Society Western Section for a workshop on drone mapping for wildlife biologists. Over three days, 25 participants learned about drone technology, the science behind mapping with drones, regulations at both the federal and state levels, flight operations, data processing and analysis, and 360 drone photography. The workshop was hugely successful.

 

 

 

 

 

The workshop once again proved the value of collaboration. The Hastings Natural History Reservation, a UC Berkeley field station under the UC Natural Reserve System, was a superb location for the workshop, and Resident Director Vince Voegeli took good care of us. IGIS team members Sean Hogan, Andy Lyons and Jacob Flanagan, provided the core of the technical material building upon earlier workshops include last year's DroneCamp. Steve Goldman, UAS Coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) spoke about the use of drones in CDFW including their recently finalized regulatory policies and procedures. Steve Earsom from the US Fish and Wildlife Service recorded a similar presentation for participants. Professor Emeritus David Bird from McGill University educated and entertained the audience with several presentations about UAVs in wildlife research over his long and distinguished career. All of this was put together by TWS Western Section Workshop Coordinator and master planner, Ivan Parr.

We are looking forward to more drone mapping workshops and love the collaborative model that combines institutions, technical backgrounds, and applications. Our next multi-day drone workshop will be another offering of DroneCamp coming this summer. Stay tuned for an announcement in the near future.

 

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