Aerial Mapping

Aerial mapping, also known as aerial surveying, involves taking photographs from the air and using software to digitally stitch them together into a high-resolution map of a specific site or area.

While we offer high quality, and high accuracy map products, no, ForeSight is not a licensed land surveyor in Oregon or any other state.

Aerial mapping offers several advantages over traditional ground-based surveying methods:

• Data richness: Drone-based aerial mapping is the highest resolution “portrait” of your site possible. When compared to most satellite imagery, there’s 10 to 100 times more data in the final drone-based map! That provides the possibility to measure metrics not visible on satellite imagery across an entire landscape, with much less time and effort than using a field-crew.

• Efficiency: Aerial mapping can cover large areas quickly and efficiently, making it a cost-effective solution for landscape-scale projects. Aerial mapping works best for sites from 10 to 2000 acres.

• Accuracy: Aerial mapping produces highly accurate maps by utilizing georeferencing techniques like GCPs, RTK, or PPK for maps that can be precisely aligned with existing and future datasets. This is required for applications such as individual tree segmentation and tracking over time.

• Safety: Aerial mapping eliminates the need for field crews to traverse dangerous or inaccessible terrain, like wetlands, river-crossings, landslides, and estuaries.

• Temporal Control: Most satellite imagery is captured at arbitrary times that may not align with the seasonal changes of interest, or the project milestones. Some satellite imagery can be commissioned at specific times, but weather conditions, like cloud cover, and costs can be prohibitive.

• Archival Insurance: Field crews will only collect the sparse data in their protocol, but what if after time has passed, more questions arise about prior conditions? Drone-based Aerial Mapping is the best way to archive the conditions of your site prior to restoration or natural changes over time. It’s like having a school yearbook portrait to look back at and smile on how much growth has occurred :-)

• Scale: For projects from 2 to 2000 acres, drone-based Aerial Mapping is usually the more cost-effective solution for orthoimagery. But, if your area of interest is larger than 2000 acres, consider finding a satellite imagery solution for your needs.

• Data richness: When compared to most satellite imagery, there’s 10 to 100 times more data in the final drone-based map! That provides the possibility to measure metrics not visible on satellite imagery across an entire landscape, and with much less time and effort than using a field-crew.

• Temporal Control: Most satellite imagery is captured at arbitrary times that may not align with the seasonal changes of interest, or the project milestones. Some satellite imagery can be commissioned at specific times, but weather conditions, like cloud cover, and costs can be prohibitive.

We use advanced unmanned drones equipped with high-resolution cameras. For more specialized applications, we employ multispectral, hyperspectral, and thermal sensors to capture a wide range of data based on your requirements.

RGB imaging captures images in the red, green, and blue spectrum, similar to standard cameras. Multispectral imaging captures light in several specific parts of the spectrum, while hyperspectral imaging covers a broader range and captures data in hundreds of narrow bands. Multispectral and hyperspectral imagery can be valuable in evaluating vegetation for extent, health, classification, and speciation in some cases.

Yes, our services are highly scalable and suitable for projects of various sizes, from small sites of an acre or two to large-scale landscapes of 2000 acres are all accessible with drone-based Aerial Mapping.

Aerial mapping is valuable for urban planning, agriculture, environmental monitoring, restoration, river geomorphology, vegetation classification, revegetation planning, resiliency planning, wildlife surveys, and many other fields requiring detailed site analysis. See our Applications List for a more complete list of relevant applications.

Ideal conditions vary by project. We’ll start by understanding the questions you hope to answer and goals you want to achieve with Aerial Mapping. Specific seasons may be preferable depending on the project goals: leaf-on vs. leaf-off, high water vs low water, high tide vs low tide. When compared to satellite imagery, drone-based Aerial Mapping provides superior temporal control.

Data is processed and can be delivered in various digital formats, compatible with GIS and other analysis software, as per client requirements. Our files are compatible with all major software platforms, like ESRI Arc Desktop, QGIS, Google Earth, and many others.

Absolutely, the maps produced can be easily integrated with existing GIS data for comprehensive spatial temporal analysis and planning.

Aerial mapping is subject to local and federal aviation and privacy laws. We handle all necessary permissions and comply with legal requirements.