Deliverables

Figure One. This image shows the changing elevation represented in a color map. Areas in blue are the lowest, and areas in red are the highest. The shading represents the sharpness of change in varying elevation

Finished data products are virtual maps and models that can be used to measure distances and elevations. The deliverable is usually either a 2D or 3D product. Most commonly, surveyors, architects, and engineers use 2D products like topography contours, orthomosaics, digital surface models, and digital terrain models to represent landscapes. Digital surface models show a color mapping of change in elevation with varying shades.

There are additional product deliverables that are 3D, such as: point cloud classifications, mesh models, and volumetric calculations. An environmental engineer interning at the Environmental Systems Research Institute in Redlands, California spoke to the priceless nature of a 3D Point Cloud...

Classifying features from a 3D Point Cloud means adding valuable information that enables users to unlock further insights from their data… It plays a significant role in various Geospatial applications that are transforming the way we understand and manage natural and man-made assets: 3D Distance Measurements, Bare-Earth Extraction, Building Footprints Extraction, Change Detection Analysis, Volumetric Analysis, 3D Visualization, Area Estimation and more. (D'Alessio)

The data maps and models can be exported in several different file formats. The file format desired usually depends on the intended use. Typically, whoever is on the receiving end will look for a file format that is compatible with their software program. The industry standard for software is Computer-Aided Design (CAD) by Autodesk and ArcGIS Drone2Map. From my experience, some of the most common applications for processing drone data includes SiteScan, DroneMapper, DroneDeploy, Pix4D, Agisoft Photoscan, and PrecisionMapper. There are countless others, but these are some of the most popular. I’ve noticed the most desired file formats are .OBJ, .GeoTIFF, .TPK, .DXF, .LAS, and .XYZ. Data is typically categorized into two different groups: vector data or raster data.