Day 17: First to Fly

Today was my first day on data collection considering my individual project. After arriving at the site, I took one good lab around to observe my hectare wide spot to get a good idea of what I was up against. I carried the Yuma around with me to take five strategic points that I think easily define the boundaries of my hectare. I also scouted for georeference points that I think will come out easily in my Photoscan.

After this step, I conversed with Paul to find out the best way to fly my plot. This wasn’t a no “brainer” surprisingly. I need to decide how detailed I wanted my my plot of land to be. The higher I flew, the less data I would need to process and smaller more manageable model would render. The lower I flew, the more possibility that a 3D model wouldn’t render, but I would have a larger model to calculate volume from.

I decided to fly in both heights to see what the results formed. I took five flights up using a Pentax.

When I came home, I processed the data and stuck it into Photoscan. The 3D model rendered usable. However, I think measuring volume may be more of a challenge than anticipated.

Tomorrow, I will fly more, try to make headway on getting an NDVI of the area and try to use ground based images in Photoscan.

Cole Anwyl Walters