02 Aug UAS Faculty Institute Report for VCU Rice Rivers Center

GeoTEd-UAS’s third UAS Faculty Institute supporting further professional development of community college faculty and other high school educators was hosted by the Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Rice Rivers Center (RRC). The RRC is situated on 342 acres along the James River, which includes a 70-acre wetland restoration site and the LEED Sustainable Walter L. Rice Education Building.

This Institute enabled GeoTEd-UAS cohort members to plan and conduct real-world field operations to produce data useful to VCU’s RRC. Data were collected using a variety of sensors, e.g., true color, multispectral, near-infrared (NIR), and thermal. All missions were operated under the FAA Part 107 rules for commercial small UAS operations. Data collected will be provided to RRC to use in their ongoing research. The primary objective was to characterize the vegetation, structure, microhabitats, drainage patterns, and tidal activities of the large wetland using high resolution mapping techniques.

Other objectives included providing a baseline for the growth and spread of reintroduced subsurface vegetation and vegetative vigor on the green roof of the conference center.

Future projects and courses led by community college faculty will provide deeper analysis and interpretation of the data in support of the Center.

Photographs are available for download at this link 

All data is available for download at this link (coming soon)