This site may be of use for WebODM and photogrammetry using UAVs, as it focuses purely on processing that type of data and the hardware required.   It also covers Conservation and Agriculture analysis and training using open source GIS and 3D point cloud software. Follow the links below:

https://www.geowingacademy.com

Hope this helps.

Hi @willrippon, I've worked with 3D reconstruction systems (software and hardware) for over 10 years now, and lately I've been really pleasantly surprised by Pix4D.

Here is a demo for a landscape survey my company just did.
Here is a 300 MB orthomosaic we just got as well.
Here is the hardware workflow described in detail.

On top of the drone imagery, we did "post-processing kinematics" (PPK) of the drone images (a very important thing to do, otherwise photogrammetry quality really suffers).  I'm happy to discuss workflow further, and plan to release open source code and services.

If nothing else, go with Pix4D.

 Is thisvfunding grant an opportunity? https://www.dronedeploy.com/blog/expand-your-impact-with-a-grant-from-dronedeploy

Hi David, this is an incredible project. Would you be interested in sharing more of your experience with AI and wildlife conservation with my students? They are currently researching this, and would greatly benefit from speaking with a professional in the field. Thank you for considering!

Hats off to your team for this absolute game-changing technology! 

We rescue stray and wild animals in Taiwan, and the bulk of our work is saving animals maimed by wire snares and gin traps. We've become better at finding the devices, but still not good at all. There's simply too much difficult terrain to cover and we only have eyeballs and hiking sticks to find them. We know roughly where they are because the maimed stray dogs will eventually find their way onto a road and be reported to us. Then we close one of them, set up a trail camera, get the evidence of the poacher in the act of re-setting it, and get him prosecuted and shut down. But we need to be able to scale this greatly.

I've been using a thermal-imaging drone to locate stricken animals and am now considering buying another drone more suited to finding traps and snares. Some newer drones are able to navigate through forest without crashing into thin branches, so I've been looking into equipping one with LiDAR to see if that can detect the devices. But then I came across your YouTube channel and then this post about using airborne synthetic radar, and I'm incredibly excited to see where you might take this incredible technology.

How can we get our hands on the SAR you're using? It's 3 kg, right? I'm wondering if I could fit it to a suitable drone. If it works above forest canopy to detect traps and snares on the forest floor, then I can use a load-carrying drone instead of a light obstacle-avoidance drone.

If you made the SAR yourselves, then maybe think about crowdfunding for your project. I'd happily pledge funds if it meant I could get my hands on the kind of equipment you're using.

I can't tell you how happy I am thinking about all the animals' lives you'll save with this. Don't just remove the snares—gather evidence and put the poachers out of business too!

The link above does not seem to work but this does: https://wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/community/files/drones_for_gis_-_best_practice_v2.0.pdf

Hi Nilaksha,

maybe this is interesting too 😉 My free manual 'Drones in Biomonitoring' - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8077113 can help to get (more) knowledge how to proceed easily and successfully 😉 

It covers topics from buy to fly and data processing.

📖 The manual was developed to help authorities, landscape conservation / maintenance or nature conservation associations etc. in nature conservation to manage their growing monitoring tasks more effectively and cost-efficiently.
🛸 The use of drones can contribute in many ways to increasing the effectiveness of monitoring, reducing costs and minimizing disturbance - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Steffen-Doering.

Best regards!
Steffen

Adrian,

Many thanks for v2.0 of the GIS best practices document. How does one obtain a copy of the RSPB code of practice B09 referenced in the best practices document? The link in the document does not work for me.

Thanks,

Rick