Monitoring Wax Lake Delta with Drones

Wax Lake Delta is a remote location that is only accessible via boat. Once there, it is equally hard to travel around since parts of the island are covered with water or squishy ground. To better study the islands, researchers have begun using Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAVs or drones). The drone cameras capture images that then are processed in research labs. These tools represent a new way to think about coastal research.

Researchers start out in the field and fly their drone over various locations. They then take these drone images back to the lab to be processed on a computer. The computer helps distinguish between different types of vegetation, water, etc. But to document ecosystem shifts, the researchers need to have something to compare it to. So, they go back to the field during a different season, different year or before and after events to compare those images with previous ones taken.

Things on Wax Lake Delta can change quickly. To demonstrate, compare the following images to observe changes that have occurred to the island’s composition from June 2019 to July 2019.