The Experimental African Forestry Division of Seedballs Kenya: Drones, Data and Forestry

The linkages between UAV's (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), forestry and eco-system management have only just begun to mature. There is extensive potential for these tools to fill in gaps in current practices while providing thousands of 'green coller' digital jobs in the environmental service industry in East Africa.

Below are some links and information about drones for forest landscape management, mapping and restoration.

1. Forest mapping and biodiversity

Drones of various shapes, sizes, and functionalities have emerged over the past few decades, and their civilian applications are becoming increasingly appealing. Flexible, low-cost, and high-resolution remote sensing systems that use drones as platforms are important for filling data gaps and supplementing the capabilities of crewed/manned aircraft and satellite remote sensing systems. Here, we refer to this growing remote sensing initiative as drone remote sensing and explain its unique advantages in forestry research and practices. Furthermore, we summarize the various approaches of drone remote sensing to surveying forests, mapping canopy gaps, measuring forest canopy height, tracking forest wildfires, and supporting intensive forest management. The benefits of drone remote sensing include low material and operational costs, flexible control of spatial and temporal resolution, high-intensity data collection, and the absence of risk to crews. The current forestry applications of drone remote sensing are still at an experimental stage, but they are expected to expand rapidly. To better guide the development of drone remote sensing for sustainable forestry, it is important to systematically and continuously conduct comparative studies to determine the appropriate drone remote sensing technologies for various forest conditions and/or forestry applications. Link to paper> © 2015, Northeast Forestry University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

2. Precision forestry and forestry management

Different parameters relating to forests such as the extent of canopy cover, the number and species composition of trees and volume estimation can also be achieved efficiently through the use of unmanned aircrafts. This data collected by use of drones are usually accurate and can help in quick and better decision making as opposed to other methods.

3. Mapping canopy gaps

Forest disturbances are mostly caused by storms or human interference and these have a direct impact on the productivity of forest stands. This also affects regeneration. Satellite imagery was initially used to access this kind of data by mapping the canopy gaps but the information was not as accurate as it needed to be. This however changed with the introduction of drone remote sensing.

4. Measuring forest canopy gaps and other important attributes

Canopy heights and other canopy attributes are some of the best features of forest used by forest professionals. This data needs to be accessed accurately and thanks to LiDAR technology that can now be mounted on drones, the information can be accessed fast and efficiently.

5. Capturing forest data

Drones can now be used to capture vital forest data such as planting success rates, vegetation change and health, canopy attributes such as canopy gaps, canopy heights and even the extent of carbon storage within a forest. This information is not only relevant to forest researchers but also to forest farmers.

6. 3D mapping for carbon storage

In the past, measuring the extent of carbon storage in biomass has been very labor intensive and very expensive. But thanks to the introduction of drone technology, remote sensing can now be used to get 3D mapping of carbon storage within forests of many types.

7. Restoration of scorched land and firefighting support

Wild fires often cause extensive damage to land and soil after the fire has been extinguished. The process of land restoration is what takes years as it requires extensive land survey and tree planting that could take years. Drones can be used to do these surveys fast and reduce the cost and time of land restoration and aerial seeding.

Drones can even be used in firefighting. Using a built in camera, a firetower is able to detect the thermal signature of forest fires that are beginning within a 15-km (9-mile) radius of itself.

When a fire is detected, the tower's computer determines the geographical location of the blaze, and then "awakens" the drone by sending it an email with those coordinates – that same email is also sent to a fire-fighting crew at a base station. The GPS-guided drone proceeds to autonomously fly out to the fire, using its own thermal and optical cameras to obtain and transmit visuals back to the firefighters.
https://newatlas.com/forest-fire-drone/60213/

https://uavcoach.com/drones-fire-departments/

Take, for example the FVR-90, a fixed-wing drone with a 14-foot wingspan capable of traveling at speeds up to 80 knots, or 46 mph, with a flight time of 8 hours. They are sent airborne just at dusk when other human-piloted flights are grounded. The sky is theirs, and the overhead view they have of the fire is detailed and in real time.

“The way we use UAS now is very much a supplement,” said Justin Baxter, the Forest Service National UAS Operations Specialist. “There are certain times that it’s just not safe for us to utilize manned helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft, like nighttime operations or in thick smoke or high winds. But during those times there are still firefighters out there trying to complete the day's objectives and put the fire out.”

The drones that Baxter and his team fly are equipped with cameras that are not your normal cameras. They come equipped with multiple types of sensors, including infrared, that allow the team to see through smoke and, at night, see heat signatures, or thermal-based imaging. This allows the team to identify areas where fire is still active and new areas where flames have advanced, such as spot fires. https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/mechanized-birds-wildland-firefighting-drone-intelligence

8. Tree planting with drones 🌱🌱

Planting trees in remote areas hard to reach is not an easy task. The land is often not evenly distributed and it is sometimes inaccessible. Drones can be used to distribute seeds and seedballs in these areas in a fast and efficient manner and ensure adequate seed distribution rates. (Longer detailed blog on aerial seed application in East Africa here (https://seedballskenya.blogspot.com/2016/08/application-of-plant-seed-using-aircraft.html)

Drone seeding in Somalia with UNSOM and Seedballs Kenya https://unsos.unmissions.org/reforesting-somalia

Kenya Flying Labs 3D printed seed dispenser https://twitter.com/Kenyaflyinglabs/status/1465312191620554758

https://news.scienceafrica.co.ke/seedballs-aiding-kenyas-reforestation-efforts/

The first KCAA licensed drone seed dropping demo in Kenya by KENDRONE in Mombasa https://www.facebook.com/KendroneKenya/videos/182002460455388

Some companies are even looking into using drones for tree seed collection:

9. Forest surveillance

Drones are now being used to do aerial surveys of rainforests to determine where the trees have been affected by human activities and the patterns being used to achieve this. Drones can then relay the data to the relevant authorities who use it to make informed decisions.

10. Monitoring illegal quarrying

Drones can be used to monitor illegal quarrying especially in forested areas that cannot be easily accessible by humans. Drones can fly over these areas and take clear shots of the damage that has been caused in these areas and advise authorities on corrective measures to take.

12. For dropping fertilizer or spraying herbicides

One of the toughest and labor intensive jobs is the sprinkling of fertilizer/herbicides in forested areas. Drones have come in handy in helping to spread fertilizer etc. over forested areas that were previously inaccessible. And also reduce exposure to human operators for dangers herbicides.

15. Forest security

A lot of forest cover is being lost to unscrupulous business people through logging and this ends up causing global warming. Law enforcement authorities have also employed the use of drones to do forest cover monitoring to arrest the people who are destroying them.