ALASKA—The Alaska Region is using all available technology to get a better lay of the land. Its current efforts can be summed up in three words—drones, LiDAR, 3-D.

Just a month ago, a pair of contractors was busy flying small unmanned aerial systems, or drones, equipped with LiDAR technology around some of Juneau’s most popular sites. 

The Forest Service-contracted activity sought to gather information using Light Detection and Ranging technology—a pulsed laser emitting from a drone—to measure precise three-dimensional information about the sites below it.

Those locations included streams, hiking trails, bridge and dam sites, shorelines, karst terrain and vegetation study plots.

Information gathered will support maintenance, planning and resource information needs, including forest health, soil mapping, vegetation assessments, terrain characterization, stream restoration, heritage site documentation and mapping of sensitive geologic features. 

The result of use of the airborne laser scanner will be a collection of highly precise three-dimensional points that will produce a bare-earth elevation model, tree canopy height, vegetation metrics, 3-D features of interest and more. 

The resulting information will help in making resource management decisions in support of the Alaska Region’s national forests—the Chugach and the Tongass.
 
The drone collection team included Indigo Catton, Jeremy Webb and Jim Monty. They are contractors for the Forest Service Geospatial Technology and Applications Center. 

The experts flew their LiDAR-equipped drones over familiar Juneau locations like Outer Point and Fish Creek sites on Douglas Island, Nugget Creek dam site near the Mendenhall Glacier, and a proposed trail corridor near Auke Bay. On Prince of Wales Island, they collected information about multiple sites spanning the island, from Hollis to Shaheen to Wale Pass.  

This is the first time that drones equipped with LiDAR technology have been used by the Forest Service in the Alaska Region. The project not only provides important remotely collected data but also serves as an evaluation of the technologies, cost considerations, and how they might support the various natural resource applications in the Alaska region.