Efficient mapping for fodder cultivation with commercial small drone

Abstract

To optimise land use, an overview regarding its topography of the proposed land is essential to be portrayed, especially to depict the slope, elevation, calculation of cut and fill, as well as planning for water supply. However, in practice, high-resolution topographic data are hard to obtain and are highly priced. As an alternative solution, commercial small drones could be utilized to improve the input for such data. Commercial small drones could be utilized as a photogrammetric approach to obtain detailed digital surface model (DSM). This study aimed to get high-resolution of topography condition using commercial small drones and evaluate the result comparing to terrestrial surveying. The approach was done using Drone DJI Phantom 3 Professional, where the ground control points (GCPs) were undertaken with GPSMAP 64s SEA. The study area was ±23 ha proposed for fodder cultivation, located at Ngantru Village, Bojonegoro, East Java Province in Indonesia. Outcomes obtained from the analysis were orthophoto, digital models, and contours. The results yielded an efficient approach for mapping compared to field/terrestrial surveying. The drone approach only cost IDR ±4,000,000, whereas terrestrial mapping (using electronic total station) was worth up to IDR ±25,000,000. As the expense altered significantly, the process of collecting data varied as well. The overall data acquisition using drone only took 2 hours to complete, while field survey may require up to 2 days of acquisition. Although results accuracies were also an issue, the output reliability for drone with errors from 0.5 to 6 m was somewhat acceptable. In conclusion, small commercial drones were one way to undertake efficient mapping (in terms of cost and time) compared to field/terrestrial survey.