HELENA — Wednesday at Boulder Creek, the Montana DNRC used drone and lidar technology to better understand water flow.
“The advantage of using LIDAR compared to photogrammetry is that LIDAR units can see through vegetation. And because we have water resources and we're working around streams, there are a lot of trees and plants around streams. ” said David Saba, a hydrologist with the Montana Department of Natural Resources Conservation.
Saba and his team went to Boulder Creek on Wednesday using a drone to capture images of about 200 acres and a mile of the stream. The drone uses photography and lidar technology to create a topographic map of the area. Lidar technology uses lasers that bounce between the Earth and the drone to help create maps.
“And by creating these models, we can better answer the question of how much water is actually flowing on a given day at a given time,” Saba said. Masu.
tom buchanan
They first used this LiDAR drone technology in September last year. The results were so good that I found I couldn't go back to my previous methods and technology. This is one of dozens of locations that DNRC staff hope to map. There is a gauging station on the Boulder Creek property that measures water levels and helps the DNRC figure out how much water is flowing. Creating these maps helps you add additional information to the information you collect from these types of gauges.
All this information can help better manage water rights and create better policies.
“Water is a precious resource in Montana. By better understanding how much is available at any given time and better predicting how much will be available in a given year, water use can be reduced. You can make better decisions about how,” Saba says.
tom buchanan
DNRC must continue to use GPS surveying equipment to manually assess river depths because the cost of drones with this type of LiDAR technology is currently prohibitive.
