Practical guides to drone survey, mapping and GIS

Plain answers to the questions engineers, project managers and plant owners ask us about drone surveys, LiDAR, thermography, costs and deliverables.

Drone survey for highway DPRs: what consultants need

What IRC:SP:19 asks for, what a drone does well, what still needs ground survey, and what to put in the scope.

What decides accuracy, how it is proved with checkpoints, and what to ask for in an accuracy report.

How each works, side by side, and the right choice for highways, railways, power lines, mines and hills.

What each method does best, and the combined workflow most infrastructure surveys use.

Orthomosaic, DSM, DTM, contours, point clouds and CAD drawings, with their file formats.

A 10-point checklist: certified pilots, accuracy reports, samples, references and data ownership.

What an ESP shows, when railway projects need one, and how drone and LiDAR surveys produce it.

Solar

Flight conditions, the IEC TS 62446-3 standard, defect types and a checklist for a usable report.

The six factors that decide the price, and what to send for an accurate quote.

Ground sample distance, footprint and the flight height for a target GSD.