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Your trees and landscapes require year-round care, and The Davey Tree Expert Company is here to help provide you with expert advice. Join our professional Davey arborists and gardening-expert host Doug Oster to learn all about caring for your properties. We'll talk about introduced pests, seasonal tree care, tree diseases, arborists' favorite trees, how to help your trees thrive and everything in between. Tune in every Thursday because here at the Talking Trees Podcast, we know trees are the answer.
Talking Trees with Davey Tree
How Drones are Used in Arboriculture
Deb Sheeler, a Geospatial & Software Support Services production manager with Davey Resource Group (DRG), talks about the ways drones are used in arboriculture, what kind of data they can capture and how it's used in the industry.
In this episode we cover:
- What does geospatial and software support mean? (0:36)
- How drones are used in arboriculture (1:04)
- Drones creating 3D images (2:27)
- How many people operate a drone? (3:35)
- What was used before drones? (4:38)
- Who can operate a drone? (5:55)
- Where can drones be used? (6:41)
- Who uses the data? (7:52)
- When did Deb first learn about drones? (9:36)
- How often is Davey using drones? (11:28)
- How Deb got started in her career (12:15)
- One of Deb's favorite features drones offer (13:48)
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To learn more about drones at Davey, check out our Drone Technology webpage.
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Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com.
Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!
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Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more, because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer.
I'm joined this week by Deb Sheeler. She is production manager, geospatial and software support services for the Davey Resource Group in beautiful Kent, Ohio. Deb, we're going to talk a lot about drones today, but I want you to tell me what is a geospatial software support services. What is that at Davey?
Deb Sheeler: I'm glad to be able to hop on here with you. On my end, I manage the GIS and remote sensing services within DRG for supporting environmental consulting, as well as asset and vegetation management services.
Doug: I was really excited about this topic, about drones, because I never even thought of using drones, for what we do at Davey. When is the first time you had heard about drones being used in this business?
Deb: Well, it's been since the early, I would say around 2010, I started hearing a little bit more about it. We didn't start implementing that until 2017. We started looking to identifying the different applications that we could utilize and implement that into our current services to make things a little more efficient, a little more safer for our teams out in the field.
Doug: Tell me about that. Tell me about how different ways they use drones when they're on site.
Deb: It depends on the application. When it comes to environmental consulting, we utilize it by just capturing imagery, whether it be just a visual inspection of a site or monitoring and tracking of the site, as well as multispectral imagery that we can provide results from, which gives you a vegetation assessment of the location and the project. In addition to LIDAR applications, where we're looking more in a 3D capabilities.
Doug: Wow. You're going to have to break down some of that stuff for me because you lost me there for a second. The drone can look at-- how does it make a 3D image? Is this a special camera or different-- How does that work?
Deb: When you're talking about UAS services, that incorporates a little bit of everything. The actual vehicle itself, which is the UAV or the drone, which most everyone is familiar with. Then you also have the software capabilities that you also utilize when you're acquiring the data in the aerial acquisition and processing that data in the software to be able to provide you those results you need, depending on what the project requires. If it's just an image in the end, or if it's an actual video, we just capture videos, vegetation health assessment along the corridors, right-of-ways, as well as 3D point cloud classification to identify vegetation encroachment and vegetation health when it comes to hazard trees along the right-of-ways.
Doug: Let's give it an example. A guy goes out to a corridor and you want to look at that with a drone. How many different people? Do you have hundreds of people that run the drones or are there certain people that run the drones? How does that work?
Deb: No, yes. It certainly have to be project-to-project based. You need minimum requirements when it comes to certified pilots, in addition to identifying the airspace that's able to be where you can actually fly the vehicle or the aircraft in the air. You do have to identify your flight plan, verify that there's no deconfliction notices that you need to provide to either nearby airports or the client on their property or any client property. Then also identifying nearby residential areas because there's privacy concerns in those cases as well.
Doug: Before we had drones working in this business, how would they do what's being done by the drones?
Deb: Certainly from the ground, but you'd certainly get a different vantage point in that aspect or manned aircraft, as well as satellite imagery, depending on the needs. Certainly, when you're talking about satellite imagery, you're much higher up in elevation when you're capturing data. There's cloud issues you may run into, weather issues. Similarly, with manned aircrafts, you're much lower in elevation compared to a satellite image less issues with clouds and you're going to fly on the days that are better, but the different needs that you have, whether it's how high of a resolution you want the images to be versus something you task out or the size of the project could make a difference too because you can only capture so much data walking the ground versus capturing a regional area when you're talking about satellite or drones and manned aircrafts.
Doug: A pilot would be somebody, would they be an arborist or would they be hired as like, "This is your job. This is your job as a pilot and we're going to give you instructions on what to photograph and what to video," or is it a bit of both?
Deb: It can be both. You're going to get the best results if somebody understands what the needs are in the end and the results. Certainly, an arborist has a full understanding of what the end results are looking for. If you're a pilot, certified pilot, as well as certified arborist, then you have a better understanding, or utility arborist, you have a better understanding of the utility network and what the needs are in the end.
Doug: Is there any use for drones on just small residential properties? It sounds to me like it's more for these big projects, looking at the corridors, looking at bigger areas, or do I have that wrong?
Deb: Well, there's a best use-case scenario for everything. It's just another tool in the toolbox for us. Where it makes sense, if it's just one property, what do you need? If it's just to identify the trees on site, then that's one thing. If it's to understand whether the health of the tree, then using a multispectral camera will be able to provide that band imagery to be able to determine the health of the tree that your own eyes can't detect. It's the types of sensors, not only the vehicle itself that's being used to capture the data, but the type of sensor that is needed to determine the best results and what you need in the end.
Doug: Wow. This is really cool.
Deb: That's why I love what I do.
Doug: I'm assuming lots of other teams look at this data depending on what the request is. Sometimes it would be a scientist, sometimes it would be arborist. Talk a little bit about where the data goes.
Deb: Certainly, it depends on the needs in the end, but you have the data that's being captured, whether it's an image itself, you can have a result as just a photo in the end or a video to track and monitor possibly down lines on the utility corridor after a storm. In the end, it's the determining what the right solution is for the need of the project. It could be small project, it could be a large project.
Depending on the aircraft that's needed, whether it be a fixed wing or quadcopter, multi-rotor, or is it so large that it doesn't make sense for a drone that you need to look more at a manned aircraft to be able to complete a larger coverage? Does it make sense that an entire utility network can be captured by a satellite imagery where the data is being captured on a specified frequency? Every so often the satellite comes around that earth and it's capturing that data at the same time period. Depending on whether the weather is good or not [chuckles] also makes a difference in there.
Doug: Were you well-versed on drones before you came to Davey or was it something that you were trained to know about later when you came to Davey?
Deb: No. My focus mainly was geospatial side, the GIS, remote sensing side of it. Then what ended up happening is we're always looking at new ways and continually looking at new technology that's out there that's going to make things more efficient for us, both in the field within our own internal operations, as well as externally for our clients. Understanding the remote sensing side, that's just another service and solution that came out of the remote sensing office-based, but now we're looking more at an operational side when it comes to field-based solution.
Doug: Just for explaining to me the different types of drones, I didn't know there was anything more than just a drone. Like you said, I know it's another tool in the toolbox, but it's absolutely fascinating to me that you're looking at these different applications using this new technology. What was the learning curve like for you? Was it a big deal to start using that in your toolbox?
Deb: I started out identifying what technology out there could help us provide a more efficient solution. Then what do we do? We bring in those experts, somebody who has those experience, expertise in the aviation industry to be able to expand those services out. I certainly don't have the full-on expertise specific to drones, but we have a team that does.
Doug: How often would you say you're using drone technology in general? Is there a way to quantify that?
Deb: It's continually increasing each year.
Doug: I bet. I bet.
Deb: With any technology, there's use-case scenarios. There's also fine-tuning those results. Lessons learned. You run into different situations you may not run into in the past, and you improve your processes and your procedures. Being able to showcase those results and the expertise and the experience that you have to get better results makes a huge difference when it comes to showcasing the value that you can bring using different technologies.
Doug: Deb, tell me a little bit about how you got into this and how you made your way to Davey.
Deb: I actually graduated with my master's degree at Kent State University, just nearby. One of the Davey employees, who is a VP now, [chuckles] hired me on as a GIS technician. I was literally just putting points on a map and mapping out tree inventories. I started getting more into remote sensing when I finished up my master's degree.
At that point, I was able to move into a role, more of a management role, for managing the GIS and remote sensing team, as well as when it comes to geospatial, the software that we utilize has a geospatial component to it. You want to be able to map everything within the software. I also manage the team that supports our internal proprietary software as well.
Doug: Tell me what you get out of your job. What's the fun part?
Deb: I think the number one thing is the passion that I have is bringing new technology to the team, to our clients, and providing that value where we're continually trying to improve our processes and procedures to get the best results in the end and be able to make informed decisions.
Doug: One more question. What was one of the coolest images or videos that you ever saw come out of drone technology for this business?
Deb: One of the coolest? Oh man, there's so many. Let's see. I would say that when you're flying in an airplane, the neat thing about that is looking down and seeing everything. When we're capturing the images from above, it's such a different perspective than from the ground, looking up. I think that the coolest thing that comes out of it for me is capturing high-resolution imagery to the point where you can actually utilize software to automate and pull out the features within that much more quicker than somebody just going in there and digitizing it.
You can pull the information from imagery that you're capturing to do so much more with it after the fact and make so much more informed decisions as to where to plant or where there is hazards and encroachment within a right-of-way. Just so many different decisions from being able to capture imagery from above than you get when you're walking boots on the ground because you can only cover so much ground. Viewing it from above and being able to capture images from above gives you so much more to work with when it comes to data.
Doug: Well, as I've said several times in this interview, absolutely fascinating, Deb. Really just something I would never think about and really interesting. I really appreciate your time and the explanation of what you're doing. It's really cool. Thanks so much.
Deb: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Doug: I love hosting this podcast because I learn something in each and every show. Now, tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I am your host, Doug Oster, and I need you to do me a big favor. Subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss a show. Have an idea for an episode? Maybe a comment? Send us an email at podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y.com. As always, we like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.
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