Commercialisation of Remote Sensing for Forest Owners – Video

In:

2017 Forest Growers Conference

Report No:

AC2017-32

Report Date:

October 18, 2017

Author(s):

David Herries: Interpine

Video Summary of Commercialisation of Remote Sensing for Forest Owners

Interpine are New Zealand’s largest UAV service provider, and are already using UAV’s for a whole suite of forest management activities. Examples include:

• equipment inspections, harvest waste assessment and monitoring of sensitive zones on harvest sites
• land preparation assessments including digital terrain mapping e.g. for road-planning
• new planting inspections/quality control
• nursery stocktakes
• trial monitoring.

Drones are also playing a vital role in fire-fighting, including the February 2017 Port Hills fire. During this fire, Interpine’s drones were fitted with infra-red heat sensors and were flown at night. Their job was to locate and geo-reference hotspots. The information was delivered to fire fighters by day-break via a mobile phone app, enabling them to go directly to the hotspots and deal with them, saving valuable hours on the ground.

UAVs role is seen as providing ‘another set of eyes’ for forest managers, with ever-increasing capabilities to measure, count and monitor different elements of the forest and forest operations. Forest management companies are advised to identify a member of staff – a ‘champion’ – and invest in training and running some trials with this person. Also important is that operating policies and procedures are developed, and the law relating to use of UAVs is well understood.

Below is the presentation copy.

Document:

32 Commericalising Remote Sensing_ D Herries (17.08 Mb)