Mapping a territory: 5 tips for doing a great job while saving time and money

Mapping a territory becomes simple

A few years ago, mapping an area, whether large or small, was extremely complex. It required hours and hours on site (even in bad weather), extremely expensive equipment, and slow, not always very precise calibration. Today, thanks to advances in technology, doing the same work mainly requires two things:

• having a suitable drone
• knowing photogrammetry and aerial mapping

Why you need a suitable drone

As mentioned before, mapping an area is not extremely simple: it takes the right knowledge and equipment. And not all drones are the same! If, for example, you want to map a large area, a multicopter is not a good choice, mainly because of its limited flight endurance (15–20 minutes at most). It is better to turn to more traditional fixed-wing devices, which at the same time can offer long endurance of over 1 hour of flight. The camera must also be intuitive, quick to install, and able to take geotagged photos (i.e. with the GPS position recorded) and in time-lapse mode (i.e. at regular intervals). So here are 5 simple rules to follow to produce excellent maps at low cost but with very high accuracy.

Here is how to map while saving time and money

Below are some tips for producing excellent maps while saving time and money without losing quality:

• Assess the mapping area: for a small area a multicopter is fine, while for a medium to large area (over 10 hectares) a glider may be the best solution
• Assess the camera's performance. A good compact camera can work if it has a built-in GPS sensor, the ability to shoot time-lapse photos and, of course, good focal lengths
• If the mapping takes several days, shoot every day at the same time with the same light. This will avoid lighter and darker areas in the final orthophoto.
• Carefully choose the mapping route and carry out a site inspection a few days beforehand. This is very important to best define the take-off and landing areas for your drones without running into problems during operations.
• Bring plenty of spare batteries… for large areas it is better not to be stuck on the ground at the busiest moment of your work.

And you? Do you have any suggestions? What equipment do you use for your mapping? Until the next flight!