UAV Aerial Topographic Surveys

Arvista has been conducting aerial topographic surveys with UAV's for over 6 years. During this time our team has gained valuable experience and developed systems of work that has enabled us to become a leading provider of this service.

Our topographic surveying service provides our clients with highly detailed digital terrain models (DTM's) and ortho-imagery that can be applied to applications such as infrastructure design (including layout design for mining and other industrial and civil projects), surface water flow modelling, and many other applications which rely on an accurate model of the terrain surface.

The DTM's and imagery that are produced from our topographic surveys can be provided in numerous formats to suit your CAD or GIS software. We can also offer online solutions to enable storage, viewing and analysis of the full resolution terrain data and imagery.

Need assistance with presentation or analysis of the data? If so, contact Arvista to see how we can help. Our staff can assist with many post-survey analytical requirements including volumetric analysis, profiling, water flow modelling and much more.

At Arvista we utilise a range of fixed-wing and multi-rotor UAV systems to suit a great range of applications and operating environments. The systems that we use are well suited to the harsh operating conditions that we regularly operate in and can be used for surveying anything from a few hectares to thousands of hectares.

Area coverage: Up to approx. 30 km2 (3,000 ha) with our UAV systems. Note however that the maximum survey area will vary depending on accessibility, location and other factors. Arvista can also offer aerial surveying options with manned aircraft that can be more cost-effective for larger areas.

Image Resolution: Typically between 3 and 5 cm per pixel.

Accuracy and geo-referencing: Absolute horizontal and vertical accuracies up to approx. ± 50 mm can be achieved on open ground. Accuracy will vary depending on a number of factors including image resolution, and these will be discussed during the project planning phase. We use professional GNSS survey equipment to enable accurate geo-referencing of the acquired imagery and ground control markers, relative to existing state geodetic survey control, or local project control.

Data formats provided:

• Triangulated terrain surfaces (DXF, TIF, Surpac DTM, Vulcan 00t)
• Rendered 3D model (OBJ)
• Point clouds and contours (DXF, DWG, Shapefile, Surpac STR)
• Ortho-imagery (ECW, TIF, JPG, PDF Maps, Google Earth KMZ)

We can provide many other file formats please contact us if you have specific requirements. Various levels of detail can also be provided in the terrain models to maximise the usability of the data.

Time involved: The time involved on site to capture the aerial imagery and conduct any required ground control surveying can vary considerably depending on the operating environment, accessibility within the survey area, and resolution & accuracy requirements. For topographic surveys in relatively open, accessible areas however, our surveyors can typically survey in the order of 5 km2 (500 ha) per day. The time involved in processing the aerial survey data and generating the deliverable items is typically in the order of a few days to a week. For smaller areas the processing may be completed on the day of acquisition, or the following day.