CIG Ottawa Branch

UAV Pilot Project at the Rouge National Urban Park of Canada

A UAV pilot project was done for the Ontario Regional Office of NRCan, Surveyor General Branch.  The project area was approximately 1/3 of the proposed Rouge National Urban Park, at the east end of Toronto, from Lake Ontario to north of Highway 401. The purpose of the project was to acquire high resolution imagery that would assist us with legal surveys and mapping of hard to get to areas, such as swampy areas, and areas not visible by traditional aerial imagery such as under bridges.

 

Two permits were required, one from Transport Canada to undertake this work using a UAV, and the second permit from the Ministry of Transport to fly over the Hwy 401 corridor.  One of the challenges encountered was to meet conditions within the permit, being  “line of sight” given the type of terrain,  large coverage, and having to replace its batteries every ½ hour. The type of drone was called an infinite jib that has 6 propellers on 3 arms making it more stable in windy conditions.  Approximately 14,000 tiles at 3cm ground resolution were rectified and georeferenced using approximately 40 ground control points.

 

 

Robert (Bob) A. Fligg, MSc, OLS, CLS, OLIP

Senior Surveyor / Arpenteur-géomètre principal

Ontario Regional Office / bureau régional de l'ontario

Surveyor General Branch / Direction de l’arpenteur général

Natural Resources Canada / Ressources Naturelles Canada

Government of Canada / Gouvernement du Canada

 

Robert Fligg has been an Ontario Land Surveyor and Canada Lands Surveyor for 30 years.

 

He has  owned and operated a land surveying and mapping company for 12 years, been with MMM and Bennett Young Surveying, and worked for the government of Canada for 15 years, most recently as a senior survey at the Ontario Regional Office of NRCan, Surveyor General Branch.  In 2012, Robert received a Master’s degree in Geographic Information Science and he is now a part-time PhD student at the University of Waterloo, in their geomatics program.