Every week here at Geo Week News, we have been highlighting some of our favorite stories from around the internet that cover the geospatial, 3D, and AEC industries. Whether it’s a fascinating case study, insights from an industry thought leader, or deep dives into new tools, there is never any shortage of great writing and storytelling in this industry. So, below you can find links to three stories that we loved this week.
UAV vs Terrestrial Lidar for Canopy Height
Brett Ruether | Lidar News
A RIEGL RiCOPTER drone completed in nine minutes what took a terrestrial laser scanner two full days and 58 tripod setups, but researchers at Wageningen University wanted to know if the speed came at the cost of accuracy, so they put both systems over the same two hectares of Dutch forest and compared the results. Canopy heights agreed within centimeters and stem diameter correlations hit 0.98, but the study’s most useful finding is where each sensor fails: the drone thins out on trunks, while the tripod misses treetops, making platform choice a question of what you’re trying to measure, not which tool is better.
From oblique aerial acquisitions to online visualization and measurement
Fabio Remondino, Klaus Legat | GIM International
Oblique aerial imagery has long been valued for urban 3D modeling, but extracting precise, quantitative data from it has historically required specialized desktop workstations that put the technology out of reach for most municipal users, until now. GIM International explores Measuree, a browser-based platform developed by Austrian aerial survey firm AVT and the Bruno Kessler Foundation, which lets city planners, cadastral agencies, and even non-GIS staff perform 3D measurements, AI-assisted object counting, and cadastral validation directly from oriented oblique imagery without ever leaving their browser.
Aerial campaign to spot, map H5 bird flu cases
jnally | Spatial Source
Victoria’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action has deployed a helicopter equipped with high-resolution optical and thermal imaging, technology normally reserved for bushfire response and search and rescue, to patrol the state’s coastline for signs of H5 bird flu in seabird and seal colonies, marking the first time the system has been used at this scale for wildlife disease detection in the state. With 28 confirmed detections of H5 across Australia as of late July, the aerial surveillance operation is feeding real-time location data to ground crews who can respond immediately when something unusual turns up in the imagery.
