On October 19, 2016, a UAS was used to take aerial images of the Grand Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve in Southern, Colorado, for mapping purposes. During the flight, known as the Great Sand Dunes flyover, one square mile of the park centered around the Star Dune was captured by a fixed wing UAS.

The flight was accomplished thanks to partnerships between officials at the Grand Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, a nonprofit organization called UAS Colorado, and two of UAS Colorado’s members, Black Swift Technologies, which developed the SwiftTrainer drone used during the flight, and Wohnrade Civil Engineers (WCE), a mapping and technologies firm. WCE conducted the flight.

From an article with the Denver Post, Wohnrade Civil Engineers President Mary Wohnrade explains what the flight accomplished.

“The milestone project will give research staff at the park meaningful data for monitoring change detection within the dune field, and to quantify, visualize and interpret resources it is charged with protecting,” she says.

Some of the data provided to the research staff includes a high-resolution georeferenced orthomosaic image, topographic mapping at a 1-foot contour interval, a 3D model of the 1-square mile area of interest, and a georeferenced point cloud. Park officials wanted to conduct the flight to monitor how sand shifts over time, and how that effects the dunes’ height and depth.

While the National Park Service banned the use of UAS above its parks back in 2014, authorities from individual parks can request to use UAS for park purposes. For this flight, officials from Grand Sand Dunes National Park had to request permission from the Federal Aviation Administration. The flight was launched and landed from outside of the park, which did not require special permission.

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