Introduction: Drones for Natural Resources Science and Management

This blog explores applications of small unmanned aircraft (drones, or sUAS) for natural resources science and management.  We will review and summarize work done by graduate students at many institutions who have successfully completed research devoted to using this new tool to add to our understanding of the world.  Unmanned and manned aircraft further our understanding of the world we see and record where we live from a new perspective, only available from the sky above us. 
 Recent changes in rules governing use of drones relaxed restrictions previously imposed by the Federal Aviation Authority on unmanned aircraft in the public airspace.  The immediate outcome?  The new rules, which became effective on August 29 (see https://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=86305) will change everything, especially in Class G airspace. 

Prior to August 29, 2016 drone pilots needed credentials and permissions that were simply out of reach of the many who wished us sUAS for research, regardless of the type of airspace.  The new regulations (summarized at http://www.faa.gov/uas/media/Part_107_Summary.pdf) dramatically changed both credentials and permissions needed to fly small unmanned aircraft (defined in part as weighing less than 55 lbs (about 25 kg)). 



Early (2012) fixed wing prototype,
University of Nevada Main Station Farm

The change in regulations represents the start of new era in drone application in the U.S., especially for natural resources science and management.  The western United States has vast expanses of Class G airspace, with the types of natural resources challenges that could
benefit from high spatial and temporal resolution surveys.  Inexpensive, unmanned fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft can enhance our understanding of basic processes and trends in natural resources management and science.  Aerial imagery has been available since approximately 1860, when James Wallace Black photographed Boston, MA from 2000 feet from the basket of a hot air balloon.  



"Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It," New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283189)