Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) has trialled new LiDAR-enabled drones, which the utility said have enabled faster, smarter surveying.
The water corporation manages 23 major water storages and about 10,000km of delivery and drainage infrastructure across its region.
Surveying these assets to ensure they are working as safely and effectively as possible is a considerable undertaking, and one GMW sought to streamline through various innovations.
GMW said that most notable of these recent innovations was combining two of the water corporation’s most important surveying tools: drones and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology.
LiDAR devices are incredibly precise. They work by sending out thousands of laser pulses each second. These pulses hit a surface and bounce back to the device. The device is then able to tell how far away a surface is by processing how long the pulse took to return.
GMW Survey Services Manager, Avni Bekirofski, said the utility found a unique application for LiDAR-enabled drones.
“As a rural water corporation, we have a lot of large-scale surveys we need to undertake,” he said.
“Where possible we have started using LiDAR-enabled drones to complete these surveys and have used them to map large parts of our channel network and even significant pieces of infrastructure such as Dartmouth Dam’s rock step spillway.”
In the case of Dartmouth Dam, a 30-minute flight over the spillway steps sees the drone collect more than 400 million data points.
This data is then downloaded from the LiDAR camera to create a 3D model, commonly referred to as a digital twin.
“The results of the surveys we have completed with LiDAR-enabled drones have been very encouraging,” Mr Bekirofski said.
“A survey such as the one at Dartmouth would have traditionally been labour intensive, requiring a lot of manual set up.
“With projects like this one, LiDAR-enabled drones are far more efficient and also provide far more comprehensive data.”
In the past, GMW has also used planes or helicopters fitted with LiDAR devices to survey parts of its channel network.
LiDAR-enabled drones have proved a far more cost effective way of completing these surveys, while also providing greater flexibility around when the survey is completed.
“We always seek to embrace technology and innovation at GMW,” Mr Bekirofski said.
“It’s rewarding to see the efficiencies that come from this, and it is something we are eager to continue going forth.”
Featured image: GMW
