{"id":11035,"date":"2014-07-13T03:47:24","date_gmt":"2014-07-13T10:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/?post_type=project&#038;p=11035"},"modified":"2022-12-17T14:13:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T22:13:52","slug":"conservation-drone-project","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/project\/conservation-drone-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservation Drone Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Effectively conserving orangutans hinges on accurate and timely data on orangutan distribution, density and land cover change. Data on orangutan distribution and density have traditionally been obtained by costly and time consuming ground surveys. Although these yield solid data they are too expensive and time consuming to conduct on a regular basis. Data on land cover change traditionally comes mainly from freely available low resolution satellite images, because high resolution images are often too costly for conservation workers especially when they need to be obtained on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lianpinkoh.com\/\">Lian Pin Koh&nbsp;<\/a>and&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/sergewich.com\/\">Serge Wich<\/a>&nbsp;started to develop a new approach: the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/conservationdrones.org\/\">conservation drone<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conservation Drones are&nbsp;inexpensive,&nbsp;autonomous&nbsp;and&nbsp;operator-friendly&nbsp;unmanned aerial vehicles for&nbsp;surveying and mapping forests and biodiversity. They are able to fly&nbsp;pre-programmed missions&nbsp;autonomously for a total&nbsp;flight time of up to ~50 minutes&nbsp;and over a&nbsp;distance of ~25 km. Depending on the camera system installed, these drones&nbsp;can record&nbsp;videos at up to 1080 pixel resolution, and acquire&nbsp;aerial photographs of &lt;10 cm pixel resolution. Aerial photographs can be stitched together to produce&nbsp;near real-time geo-referenced land use\/cover maps&nbsp;of surveyed areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright is-resized\" id=\"attachment_3343\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/0223drone041.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/0223drone041-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3343\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" title=\"0223drone04\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/0223drone041-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangutan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/0223drone041.jpg 336w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Monitoring incoming data from the drone on a video screen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As Dr. Wich explains,&nbsp; \u201cA main aim of our work is to share our knowledge for building low-cost Conservation Drones to&nbsp;help conservation workers and researchers in developing countries&nbsp;do their jobs a lot more effectively and cost efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the past few months the researchers have tested the conservation drones above orangutan habitat in Sumatra and Sabah (Borneo). The aim of these tests was to determine whether the system could really detect orangutan\u2019s nests. The results are in and it can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to orangutan nests the drones were also able to make photos or elephants, rhinos (in Nepal), and other species. The second aim was to determine how useful the system can be in providing information on land cover types and changes.&nbsp; The images from the drone are of a high enough resolution that one can not only easily distinguish land cover (forest, corn fields, oil palm plantations, etc), but also detect logging, locate fires, small roads, etc. The drone approach therefore seems extremely promising as a tool in orangutan conservation and we look forward developing this further in close collaboration with our partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft\" id=\"attachment_3321\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Lian-Pin-Koh-lands-the-drone.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Lian-Pin-Koh-lands-the-drone-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3321\" title=\"Lian Pin Koh lands the drone\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Lian-Pin-Koh-lands-the-drone-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangutan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Lian-Pin-Koh-lands-the-drone-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/orangutan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Lian-Pin-Koh-lands-the-drone.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Lian Pin Koh lands the drone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Wich and Koh conceived of the idea of the conservation drone while discussing orangutan research and conservation, the drones are now being tested in various countries for a whole range of projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Orangutan Conservancy was one of the first organizations to help support this innovative project, and we will coninute to in the future.&nbsp; The early test results are already in and the data is very encouraging.&nbsp;&nbsp; In the months ahead, as the project continues, we will post videos and reports from the field.&nbsp; To view some of the early&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/?p=2954\">test flights click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Effectively conserving orangutans hinges on accurate and timely data on orangutan distribution, density and land cover change. Data on orangutan distribution and density have traditionally been obtained by costly and time consuming ground surveys. Although these yield solid data they are too expensive and time consuming to conduct on a regular basis. Data on land [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3469,"template":"","tags":[],"project_category":[290],"project_status":[276],"class_list":["post-11035","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-research","project_status-completed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Conservation Drone Project - Orangutan Conservancy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orangutan.com\/project\/conservation-drone-project\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conservation Drone Project - Orangutan Conservancy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Effectively conserving orangutans hinges on accurate and timely data on orangutan distribution, density and land cover change. 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