32
R. Madhavan et al.
next 10 years (Drones: Market Overview 2014) Our take on UAVs is that they can be
an invaluable tool and an asset in the sky providing images of unsurpassed quality
in civilian applications ranging from disaster relief, environmental monitoring, and
surveillance to combating animal poaching efforts and situational assessment and
awareness.
Extreme events became obvious in Brazil in 2011 when the mountain region of
Rio de Janeiro faced extreme rain in the order of 270 mm overnight. High slopes,
clay soils, irregular settlements, and enormous amounts of rain lead to thousands of
deaths and render dozens of thousands homeless (the official count is 35,000 but the
actual number is much higher than that). This was the final outcome of the major
hydrometeorological disaster in the Brazilian records. Rio Grande do Sul in Southern
Brazil consists of several high-risk areas. Moreover, according to the Brazilian Civil
Defense, almost 600 extreme events led municipalities to declare a state of emergency
in Rio Grande do Sul between 2003 and 2010. Almost a million people were affected,
either by becoming homeless or missing, getting injured, sick, dying, or having to
relocate or in extreme cases, resulting in fatalities. It is not a matter of time before
we are faced with floods and landslides. It is already happening. It is a matter of
time until they happen regularly in such a scale that we start referring to them as
disasters. Recent events lead us to the obvious conclusion: we were not prepared for
that anywhere in Brazil. So the question is: how can we prepare, react, and adapt to
this new environmental reality?
Among the diversity of natural environments around the world, certain ecosystems
can be considered as vital areas, given their environmental functions in food production, hydrological control, sheltering, genetic stocking, etc. Hence, it is mandatory
for our own survival to keep them protected to ensure the preservation of life support
systems. However, this is not an easy task since significant manpower is needed to
patrol thousands of hectares of land and water to control illegal fishing and hunting.
In order to track global changes and their impact on the Earth system, we need specific tools and instruments, e.g., land use and cover mappings which are essential
to model flood and landslide risks. A common way to perform these mappings is to
use the information gathered by orbital remote sensing and/or cameras carried by
manned aircraft. While the latter involves high costs and complicated logistics, the
former cannot be used to support an emergency plan when a hydrological disaster
occurs since its use imposes constraints like fixed revisit frequency; large elapsed
time between an observation and the image supplied; and the presence of clouds.
An interesting and efficient solution is to use UAVs for obtaining a bird’s-eye
view of the landscape and also for capturing detailed and high-resolution images
of the ground. UAVs can acquire high-resolution multispectral images, which in
turn can produce 3D models of hazard zones without putting human lives at risk.
Meteorologists, hydrologists, and spatial modelers can use such data to provide better
detail and reliable results at a local scale. In this context, UAVs have the potential to
assist in the acquisition of spatial data and also to evaluate the behavior, distribution,
and size of the populations under study.
Our work with UAVs is centered on creating tools to support the preservation
of human lives and the ecosystems that support them. In Taim Ecological Station
R. Madhavan et al.
next 10 years (Drones: Market Overview 2014) Our take on UAVs is that they can be
an invaluable tool and an asset in the sky providing images of unsurpassed quality
in civilian applications ranging from disaster relief, environmental monitoring, and
surveillance to combating animal poaching efforts and situational assessment and
awareness.
Extreme events became obvious in Brazil in 2011 when the mountain region of
Rio de Janeiro faced extreme rain in the order of 270 mm overnight. High slopes,
clay soils, irregular settlements, and enormous amounts of rain lead to thousands of
deaths and render dozens of thousands homeless (the official count is 35,000 but the
actual number is much higher than that). This was the final outcome of the major
hydrometeorological disaster in the Brazilian records. Rio Grande do Sul in Southern
Brazil consists of several high-risk areas. Moreover, according to the Brazilian Civil
Defense, almost 600 extreme events led municipalities to declare a state of emergency
in Rio Grande do Sul between 2003 and 2010. Almost a million people were affected,
either by becoming homeless or missing, getting injured, sick, dying, or having to
relocate or in extreme cases, resulting in fatalities. It is not a matter of time before
we are faced with floods and landslides. It is already happening. It is a matter of
time until they happen regularly in such a scale that we start referring to them as
disasters. Recent events lead us to the obvious conclusion: we were not prepared for
that anywhere in Brazil. So the question is: how can we prepare, react, and adapt to
this new environmental reality?
Among the diversity of natural environments around the world, certain ecosystems
can be considered as vital areas, given their environmental functions in food production, hydrological control, sheltering, genetic stocking, etc. Hence, it is mandatory
for our own survival to keep them protected to ensure the preservation of life support
systems. However, this is not an easy task since significant manpower is needed to
patrol thousands of hectares of land and water to control illegal fishing and hunting.
In order to track global changes and their impact on the Earth system, we need specific tools and instruments, e.g., land use and cover mappings which are essential
to model flood and landslide risks. A common way to perform these mappings is to
use the information gathered by orbital remote sensing and/or cameras carried by
manned aircraft. While the latter involves high costs and complicated logistics, the
former cannot be used to support an emergency plan when a hydrological disaster
occurs since its use imposes constraints like fixed revisit frequency; large elapsed
time between an observation and the image supplied; and the presence of clouds.
An interesting and efficient solution is to use UAVs for obtaining a bird’s-eye
view of the landscape and also for capturing detailed and high-resolution images
of the ground. UAVs can acquire high-resolution multispectral images, which in
turn can produce 3D models of hazard zones without putting human lives at risk.
Meteorologists, hydrologists, and spatial modelers can use such data to provide better
detail and reliable results at a local scale. In this context, UAVs have the potential to
assist in the acquisition of spatial data and also to evaluate the behavior, distribution,
and size of the populations under study.
Our work with UAVs is centered on creating tools to support the preservation
of human lives and the ecosystems that support them. In Taim Ecological Station