Multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UVAs) and high-resolution compact digital cameras: a promising new method for monitoring changes to surface karst resources

In the course of doctoral research, the authors required a quick and accurate means of documenting the real-time state of surface karst features at a variety of scales in remote and challenging field conditions. The main difficulty was finding an aerial platform that was 1) consistently effective; 2) versatile; and 3) relatively inexpensive. High resolution vertical images obtained during recreational use of a small multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) seemed to have the potential to answer this need. Using five case studies, the authors examine the potential of these images for mapping, documenting, and monitoring changes to surface karst resources following forestry-related activities in the coastal temperate rainforest of British Columbia (B.C.). Possible applications, strengths and limitations of this technology are discussed. The authors conclude that mini quadcopter UAVs equipped with high-resolution compact digital cameras are a promising and cost-effective new tool for karst scientists and karst managers

Coastal Eye: Monitoring Coastal Environments Using Lightweight Drones

Monitoring coastal environments is a challenging task. This is because of both the logistical demands involved with in-situ data collection and the dynamic nature of the coastal zone, where multiple processes operate over varying spatial and temporal scales. Remote sensing products derived from spaceborne and airborne platforms have proven highly useful in the monitoring of coastal ecosystems, but often they fail to capture fine scale processes and there remains a lack of cost-effective and flexible methods for coastal monitoring at these scales. Proximal sensing technology such as lightweight drones and kites has greatly improved the ability to capture fine spatial resolution data at user-dictated visit times. These approaches are democratising, allowing researchers and managers to collect data in locations and at defined times themselves. In this thesis I develop our scientific understanding of the application of proximal sensing within coastal environments. The two critical review pieces consolidate disparate information on the application of kites as a proximal sensing platform, and the often overlooked hurdles of conducting drone operations in challenging environments. The empirical work presented then tests the use of this technology in three different coastal environments spanning the land-sea interface. Firstly, I use kite aerial photography and uncertainty-assessed structure-from-motion multi-view stereo (SfM-MVS) processing to track changes in coastal dunes over time. I report that sub-decimetre changes (both erosion and accretion) can be detected with this methodology. Secondly, I used lightweight drones to capture fine spatial resolution optical data of intertidal seagrass meadows. I found that estimations of plant cover were more similar to in-situ measures in sparsely populated than densely populated meadows. Lastly, I developed a novel technique utilising lightweight drones and SfM-MVS to measure benthic structural complexity in tropical coral reefs. I found that structural complexity measures were obtainable from SfM-MVS derived point clouds, but that the technique was influenced by glint type artefacts in the image data. Collectively, this work advances the knowledge of proximal sensing in the coastal zone, identifying both the strengths and weaknesses of its application across several ecosystems.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC

Development and Deployment of an Intelligent Kite Aerial Photography Platform (iKAPP) for Site Surveying and Image Acquisition

Aerial photographs and images are used by a variety of industries, including farming, landscaping, surveying, and agriculture, as well as academic researchers including archaeologists and geologists. Aerial imagery can provide a valuable resource for analyzing sites of interest and gaining information about the structure, layout, and composition of large areas of land that would be unavailable otherwise. Current methods of acquiring aerial images rely on techniques such as satellite imagery,manned aircraft, or more recently unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and micro-UAV technologies. These solutions, while accurate and reliable, have several drawbacks. Using satellite imagery or UAVs can prove to be very expensive, costing tens of thousands for images. They can also prove to be time-consuming and in some cases have constraints on use, such as no-fly zones. In this paper, we present an alternative low-cost, versatile solution to these methods, an intelligent kite aerial photography platform (iKAPP), for the purpose of acquiring aerial images and monitoring sites of interest.We show how this system provides flexibility in application, and we detail the system’s design, mechanical operation, and initial flight experiments for a low-cost, lightweight, intelligent platform capable of acquiring high-resolution images. Finally, we demonstrate the system by acquiring images of a local site, showing how the system functions and the quality of images it can capture. The application of the system and its capabilities in terms of capture rates, image quality, and limitations are also presented. The system offers several improvements over traditional KAP systems, including onboard “intelligent” processing and communications. The intelligent aspect of this system stems from the use of self-image stabilization of the camera, the advantage being that one is able to configure the system to capture large areas of a site automatically, and one can see the site acquisition in real time, all of which are not possible with previous methods of AP

Late Precontact and Protocontact Stone Circle Sites at Little Manitou Lake, South-Central Saskatchewan

This study focuses on the Little Manitou Lake archaeological complex, a collection of sites situated around the western end of Little Manitou Lake, located in south-central Saskatchewan. The majority of sites documented in this region contain stone circle features suggesting residential/domestic use while a handful of sites have been documented as ceremonial in nature, containing medicine wheels and vision quest features. Today, Little Manitou Lake is hypersaline and has been so for the last 2,000 years. Evidence suggests that the lake was previously a deep freshwater lake. Changing climatic and environmental conditions responsible for the transformation of the lake would likely have influenced lifeways of past populations and may have influenced use of this area. Archaeological sites around Little Manitou Lake have been hypothesized to relate to the saline/healing nature of the water. The named Manitou comes from an Algonquian word meaning “great spirit” and the lake became known as the “Lake of Healing Waters”. Ethnographic information indicates that aboriginal groups made pilgrimages to the lake to experience the lakes healing properties. The main objective of this research was to improve understanding of interactions between past populations and the environment of the Little Manitou Lake area and to set the local archaeological record into the broader context of Northern Plains prehistory. The importance of this area to past populations is demonstrated by the density of archaeological sites identified around the lake. Considering paleoenvironmental data in relation to these sites provides new insights about human-environment interactions and how changing environmental conditions may have influenced past use of this area. To achieve the objective of this study, three goals were set out and explored: to identify hearth deposits at archaeological sites that could provide dates for site occupation in the area, to review paleoenvironmental data to better understand changing water and salinity levels of the lake through time, and to carry out spatial analyses to evaluate how site placement may relate and help elucidate the overall cultural landscape. Hearth deposits, containing charred organics, were identified which produced dates for three archaeological sites, establishing part of the cultural chronology for the region and provided data which suggest occupation occurred during the late summer or early autumn. The sites were found to belong to the Precontact and Protocontact periods. Data from EkNk-3 indicated that occupation occurred during a period of transition from the Late Old Women’s phase to the Mortlach phase while data from EkNj-4 and EkNj-68 indicated that occupations occurred during the Mortlach phase. Dates from these sites, when compared to the literature relating to paleoenvironmental conditions in the region, allowed for the inference that Little Manitou Lake was a saline lake during site occupation, leading to an improved understanding of the environmental context in which the sites were utilized. Spatial analyses were conducted on both domestic and ceremonial sites in the area. Spatial evaluations of domestic sites at the western end of Little Manitou Lake provided insight about the patterning of features present at the sites. Spatial evaluations of ceremonial sites provided insight about the importance of prominent topographic features in the region and helped to elucidate the overall cultural landscape. Taken as a whole, data collected during this study provides substantive new insights about the archaeological environment at Little Manitou Lake