Capturing stream erosion data with aerial collection technology

Steamboat Creek Restoration

With Steamboat Creek experiencing active bank erosion across a large geographic region, the client needed to get a better understanding of the problem before they could develop a solution and garner community support. While traditional survey methods would require field survey teams to collect data across large areas that might be unstable due to erosion, our team proposed aerial data collection to get up-to-date stream data across the entire reach and propose areas that could be restored.

We combined targeted land survey techniques with aerial data to capture areas of erosion areas and those needing restoration to prevent more severe erosion in the future. Using aerial data acquisition significantly reduced surveying costs, which otherwise would have made the project infeasible. With the aerial and stitched surface images, we identified areas of concern and the extent of damage.

We used this data to create a video of the entire reach, giving the client and community perspective on the extent of required improvements and benefits of future restoration projects along Steamboat Creek.