Dragonfly-drone project lifts off
Appeal for public to help fund pioneering effort to assess water quality and freshwater health
THE first dragonfly-drone project set to study dragonfly species in the wetlands of Mozambique and the lakes of Uganda needs assistance from the public to take flight.
If successful, it will be the first time drone technology is used to sample anything other than mammals and birds.
The research project is the brainchild of Dr John Simaika, a research fellow of the Department of Soil Science at Stellenbosch University and postdoctoral researcher at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, and Dr Paolo Paron, also of IHE Delft.
Their crowdfunding project on the Kickstarter platform will run until December 22, and is called “Drones and dragons: tech for assessing wetland health”. The goal is to assess the state of wetland areas in the two African countries. It is supported by Nature-Uganda and the Maputo Natural Historical Institute, as well as the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education.
One of the outputs of the projects will be a freely downloadable and shareable biomonitoring app citizen scientists can use – an online image recognition service.
“We are trying this fairly unconventional fund-raising method, because we do not think traditional scientific funding platforms are geared towards projects of this kind,” says Simaika, co-author of a book that tells how to use dragonflies to assess the state of South African wetlands and rivers.
What needs to be funded? The project team already has the drones needed to fly with, but are missing one crucial piece of equipment: a 100mm prime lens for the Sony Alpha camera.
They are also raising funds to cover their running costs, consumables and travelling expenses. They hope to visit Uganda’s major lakes and Mozambique’s wetlands twice over the next two years, to take note of how the dragonfly variety differs from season to season. Why photograph dragonflies? “Dragonflies are large insects relatively easy to spot and to identify in the field, and are excellent indicators of water quality and freshwater health,” explains Simaika. “Their presence provides information about the state of the environment, because some species are only found in undisturbed areas, while others are able to adapt to changes brought on by poor land management practices or human development.”
Drones will be used to take footage of dragonflies, while image recognition software will allow the researchers to count and identify the different species. “This avoids having someone sit for hours to review footage and count insects manually,” explains Simaika.
“Areas not easily accessed by foot, such as waterfalls or vegetation in wetlands, can be surveyed using the drones.
“Surveys can be repeated in the same areas thanks to the built-in GIS system in the drones. Because the footage is being captured electronically, the data can be uploaded, archived, shared and re-analysed not only for the presence of dragonflies, but for other things, like plant structure and health, and land cover change.”
According to Simaika, the use of such technology makes it possible for non-experts and non-scientists to do the monitoring work.
“It provides the opportunity for people to become involved in the monitoring of wetland health on a voluntary basis,” he says.
For more information, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dronesanddragons/drones-and-dragons-tech-for-assessing-wetland-heal or contact Simaika on simaikaj@sun.ac.za.
THEIR PRESENCE PROVIDES INFORMATION ABOUT THE STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT