14 December 2016

NOT JUST A PRETTY PICTURE

Land Surveys14 December 20162 min read

Land Surveys has recently been featured in an article in the publication The American Surveyor.

The article goes into detail on how the company was able to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology on the Ichthys LNG Project’s Onshore LNG facilities at Bladin Point, near Darwin.

Land Surveys has been working on various packages at Ichthys since May 2013, originally being contracted to provide surveying services for the Civil Works package of the onshore construction project. Although Ichthys initially had no formal requirement for orthophotography, Land Surveys recognised the site presented an exciting opportunity to showcase the capabilities and benefits of UAV technology. In September 2013, Land Surveys began providing regular aerial surveys of the construction site to complement the construction process.

“At first the UAV was purely adding value, giving our client something they’d never previously had, but then they started to realise new benefits and applications for the data. What started out simply as an add-on quickly became a contracted service.”

  • Matt Power, Land Surveys UAV Coordinator

Originally performing monthly UAV surveys, Land Surveys now fly the entire 3-5km site once a week. Our team fly over the site in just 3-5 flights, with each flight taking 30-45 minutes. Data is then downloaded and checked to ensure that every area is captured and of satisfactory quality. Photos are stitched together, images checked, and then georeferenced before exporting into the required formats. The client uses the data for plotting transport routes, calculating precise measurements, environmental planning, traffic management, planning for crane lifts and for providing weekly updates on infrastructure tasks such as excavation and landfill. It is also used for interface management between contractors.

For a site such as Bladin Point, which lies within a controlled air space, a major consideration when setting up procedures was safety. In the air, the UAV can avoid all of the site traffic, machines and personnel.

“That’s probably the number one benefit of the system.”

  • Matt Power, Land Surveys UAV Coordinator

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