Monitoring Dead Trees and Preserving the Green in Yosemite Park

Weather Implications on Tree Health

The lack of rain and the higher temperatures has put California’s trees under considerable stress, making them vulnerable to wildfire threat and organisms damage that can kill them. An accurate identification of dead trees for efficient treatment and effective removal process that poses safety, logistical and financial risks, becomes essential to the different authorities.

Data Collection for Assessment and Planning

SkyIMD, one of Phase One’s top integrators, was asked to provide an Aerial imagery solution for California Transportation department, Fire department, the department of Water Resources, and several local municipal utility districts, including Yosemite National Park.

Located in California, SkyIMD designs and develops multipurpose and highly extensible aerial imaging solutions. A while ago, the company introduced a uniquely designed aerodynamic camera platform (“pod”) that is capable of housing a single or two Phase One aerial cameras and was approved for commercial aviation by the FAA and 55 other countries with over 23 popular aircrafts. The SkyIMD system utilizes Phase One’s cost effective 4-Band Solution, providing exceptional imaging capability, and fits perfectly onto the SkyiMD system’s pod.

Coverage & Consistency

Michael Estigoy, SkyIMD COO said “Using a Phase One 100MP camera has enabled us to reduce the number of flight lines needed to cover an area by 40% and still maintain the desired overlap and GSD. For most of our projects, the Phase One is a must use. Having a metric and calibrated lens removes many of the questions we face when bidding on projects that require a high degree of accuracy and precision. Some of the most popular mapping applications, such as Pix4D, will optimize their results using this information. We’ve been involved in aerial image mapping since 2010 using a variety of camera and sensor configurations. The Phase One camera delivers results that are sharp, precise and properly exposed. We have been able to compare several different camera and lens combinations against each other and Phase One images are consistently better”.