Seattle Maptime

Making Maps with Drone (Part 1 ?)

March 6 , 2025

Peter Keum, GISP

King County Wastewater Treatment

Drone Program Lead/ GIS Analyst

Learning Objectives

  • Drone hardware & regulations
  • Imagery processing software & workflows.
  • Affordable aerial imagery generation.

Understand & Learn

Part 1

  • Introduction
  • Regulation
  • Hardware
  • Software

Part 2

  • Work flow
  • Products
  • More....

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CUGOS

King County Wastewater Treatment by Numbers

  • 2 million residents

  • 424 square miles

  • 383 miles sewer pipeline (2.5 inch to 14 ft)

  • 74 facilities (PS & RS)

  • 5 Treatment Plants: 180 MGD ~ Max. 900 MGD

Seattle, WA --> Medford, OR

WTD GIS

Maintain Sewer GIS Data

  • FIRS (Facility Information Retrieval System) Data
    • Maintenance Hole
    • Pipes
    • Pump Stations
    • Regulator Stations
    • Treatment Plants
    • Outfalls
  • Flow Monitors
  • CP Stations
  • Connection Points
  • Site Plan Data
  • 3D Models
  • Drone Collected Data
  • .... many many more

WTD

GIS

DATA

WTD GIS

WTD

King County

GIS

Data Library

There are 17 county agencies support King County GIS Data Library System

WLRD

Assessor

Road

Many More

+

So Let's Dive In!

Short Back Story

David Shean "Ice Man"

CUGOS April 2014

"Google Guys"

It's just a toy...past examples of what used to be

It's just a toy...

It's just a toy...

It's just a toy...

2016

  • Price /Performance
  • Easy to use
  • Quality data collection
  • Adopting Rule by FAA

Why Now?

Cell Phone Technology + Lower $$

  • Electronic Control System (ECS)
  • Accelerometer & Gyroscope Chip
  • GPS Chip
  • Lithium Polymer (LiPo) Battery
  • Motors

Integrated gyroscopic/GPS Chip in 2000's = $10,000

In 2017 = $3

1981 $120,000

2013

$5 - $15

In 2025 = $3 (??) less than $1

UAV - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

FAA Definition: Unmanned Aircraft (UA) system that is operated by a pilot via ground control or on-board computer. 

What's in the name?

UAV = Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

UAS = Unmanned Aerial System

DRONE = Dynamic Remotely Operated Navigation Equipment

RPAS = Remotely Piloted Aircraft System

Policy Paper for Civilian Missions

UAV Categories

Small  - $

  • Size: 1 - 2 meters ( 3 ft - 6.5 ft), < 55 lbs.
  • Control: Radio control

Medium

  • Size: Equivalent to a car, ~ 1000 lbs.
  • Control: Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS) & Beyond LOS, RC & Satellite ~ $$$

Large  

  • Size: > 30,000 lbs.
  • Control: Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS) & Beyond LOS, RC & Satellite ~ $$$$

 Sensors Payload

Multi-spectral 

Thermal Infrared

Lidar Camera

High resolution digital camera (100 MP)

Lidar Camera

Lidar Camera

Methane Gas Dector

RPAS as Platform

Multi-rotors

Fixed-wing & VTOL

  • Shorter flight time (< 45 min)
  • Cover smaller area
  • Highly maneuverable
  • Less expensive
  • Access to confined spaces
  • Long flight time (+ 40min)
  • Covers very large area

(vertical take-off & land)

1. Aircraft + Sensor        (Data Collection)

2. Data Processing & Analyzing (GIS)

3. Information Products

||

+

 Information Products

credit: Esri

Drone

GIS

Great Combo?

&

Great combo !

GIS & DRONE

FAA Regulations - Where are we now?

Regulations

  • Fly under 400 feet above ground level

  • Not to fly < 5 nautical miles around airport

  • Aircraft < 55 lbs.

  • Fly during daytime

  • Fly visual line of sight ( VLOS)

  • No flight over non-participating people

FAA Part 107 Rule

Hobby/Recreation

  • Self register (over 13 yrs old)

  • Fly under 400 feet above ground level

  • Not to fly < 5 nautical miles around airport

  • Aircraft < 55 lbs.

  • Fly during daytime

  • Fly visual line of sight ( VLOS)

  • Less than 250 grams (0.55 lbs)   - No need to register with FAA
  • More than 250 grams register with FAA $5.00

FAA Part 107 Drone Certification

  • Be at least 16 yrs old

  • Pass the initial aeronautical knowledge exam

  • Online recurring training every 24 month 

The Recreational UAS Safety Test (TRUST)

  • Understand recreational flying requirements

  • Take TRUST

  • Online recurring training every 24 month 

Part 1

  • Introduction
  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Regulation

Part 2

  • Work flow
  • Products
  • More....

1. Platform + Sensor (Data Collection)

2. Data Processing & Analyzing (GIS)

3. Information Products

Part 2: Work Flow

Dronelink

DroneDeploy

1. Platform + Sensor (Data Collection)

2. Data Processing & Analyzing (GIS)

3. Information Products

Part 2: Work Flow

Structure from Motion (SfM)

Part 2: Data Processing

SfM uses overlapping drone photos to reconstruct a 3D model by identifying common points and calculating their position

Photogrammetry = taking measurement from photos

Part 2: Data Processing

Drone Photogrammetry is the process of using drone-captured images to create accurate 3D models or/and maps of the real world

Drone Photogrammetry

Data Processing

Input Sequences in DD

Ground Control Points

Increase accuracy of drone map

GCP's make your map accurate BUT do not let you know HOW accurate the map is.

Ground Control Points

RTK = Real-Time Kinematic

Workflow Example 

Whidbey Island, Langley Downtown example

Aaron Racicot

Step 1. Flight with Data Collection

Step 2. Data Processing

  1. QGIS to georeference aerial imagery export to tiff file
  2. Using GDAL
  3. Or use mbutili to export into tiles
gdal2tiles.py --profile=mercator -z 1-22 yourmap.tif outputfolder

Step 3. Information Product 1

  • Create web-map using GitHub's gh-page
git checkout gh-pages
git add outputfolder
git commit -m "Yes... TILE DATA"
git push

Step 3A. Information Product 2

  • Using imagery to digitize street, add features to OSM
  • Add below url into OpenStreetMap iD Editor 
http://langleywa.github.io/gisdata/tiles/langley-2nd-street-2014-tms/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

1. Mission Planning

2. Data Processing

3. Information Products

Part 3: Work Flow Guide

  • Pix4D
  • DroneDeploy
  • DJI Fly/Pilot
  • Pix4D
  • DroneDeploy
  • Metashape
  • SiteScan

2. Data Processing

Part 3: Work Step Guide

  • Pix4D
  • DroneDeploy
  • Metashape
  • SiteScan

WebODM

2. Data Processing

Part 3: Work Step Guide

  • Pix4D
  • DroneDeploy
  • Metashape
  • SiteScan

MapsMadeEasy

2. Data Processing

Part 3: Work Step Guide

  • Pix4D
  • DroneDeploy
  • Metashape
  • SiteScan

PTGui

MapsMadeEasy

2. Data Processing

Part 3: Work Step Guide

  •  SiteScan
  • DroneDeploy

Demo example 

"First do it, then do it right, then do it better."

Credit: Addy Osmani

Saw it from Lyzi Diamond (one of the founder of Maptime)

Doing is Learning, but...

Doing with mistakes?

It's still learning!

A

B

L

Always

Be

Learning

C

Tobin Bradley, Mecklenburg County, NC

Tools

(Future Talk)

Washington GIS Association

Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS)

Special Interest Group

  • Monthly Meeting - Every 3rd Thursday over Zoom 
  • Share resources online
  • Help educate and introduce new users to the field of drone mapping and GIS

CUGOS

Cascadia 

Users

of 

Geospatial

Open 

Source

(Community)

March 6 ,2025

 

Resource Link

END

for now

peter.keum@kingcounty.gov