Other ID: Darby UAS Mapping 2025
Status: Completed
Organization(s): USGS, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Funding Program(s): Aerial Imaging & Mapping (AIM) (LQ000GU1400)
Principal Investigator(s): Sandra Brosnahan
Affiliate Investigator(s):
Information Specialist(s): Amit Millo, Jennifer Cramer
Data Type(s): Location-Elevation: LIDAR, Location-Elevation: Navigation, Imagery: Photo, Visual Identification: Ground Truthing
Scientific Purpose/Goals: sUAS flights at the Darby Creek landfill in Pennsylvania will support ecological restoration monitoring and environmental assessment. Aerial imagery will be used to quantify and classify vegetation growth over time, evaluate landscape elevation changes to assess cap stability and erosion, and collect thermal data to identify potential groundwater seepage areas.
Vehicle(s):
Start Port/Location: Woods Hole MA
End Port/Location: Woods Hole MA
Start Date: 2025-03-24
End Date: 2025-12-31
Equipment Used: DJI Matrice, Emlid RS3, Reconnaissance, Aeropoint targets, Skydio X10, Wingtra Lidar, WingtraOne Gen II, YellowScan Mapper +, Altum-PT
Information to be Derived: Will be flying multiple sensors on the M600 including a LiDAR and multispectral sensor. We will also be flying a Wingta Lidar UAS. The SkyDio will be used to collect thermal and normal RGB imagery and video. GCPs will be deployed and GPS used to collect elevation check points. Vegetation data will also be collected in random quadrats (% cover, type, and height). Summer data collections will add multispectral imagery collection with our MicaSense Altum camera for vegetation analysis.
Summary of Activity and Data Gathered: Collected lidar and RBG data with Wingtra drone and multispectral data with the Altum-PT on the M600. A general vegetation survey was also performed, along with a more specialized tree survey. GNSS data was taken using the Emlid.
Staff: Sandra Brosnahan, Jin-Si Over, Seth Ackerman
Affiliate Staff:
Notes: Entries for this field activity are based on entries from Field Activity 2024-006-FA.
Entries for this field activity are based on entries from Field Activity 2024-020-FA.
Location:
Darby Township, Philadelphia, PA
| Boundaries | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| North: 39.90721244 | South: 39.87435071 | West: -75.3028965 | East: -75.24890899 |
Platform(s):
 on foot |
Millo, A., Brosnahan, S.M., Ackerman, S.D., Over, J.R., and Cramer, J.M., 2026, Topographic data, aerial imagery, and GPS data collected during uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) operations at Lower Darby Creek, Darby Township, Pennsylvania, March to August 2025, U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P13TQ8E7.
| Survey Equipment | Survey Info | Data Type(s) | Data Collected |
|---|---|---|---|
| DJI Matrice | --- | Navigation | |
| Emlid RS3 | --- | Navigation | |
| Reconnaissance | CI-110 canopy leaf analyzer for veg survey Emlid RS3 data for checkshots | Ground Truthing | |
| Aeropoint targets | --- | Navigation Transects Profiles | |
| Skydio X10 | Hand flown to get videos of landfill | Navigation Other Imagery Photo | |
| Wingtra Lidar | at 51 m, cross gird was flown | Navigation LIDAR | |
| WingtraOne Gen II | --- | Navigation Photo | |
| YellowScan Mapper + | --- | Navigation Photo LIDAR | |
| Altum-PT | --- | Photo |
