UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) Program
Our goal is to supplement our future maintenance and upgrade costs for all UAS’s and associated equipment.
*All flights will vary per project requirements
Program requesting flight:
The location of the area to be flown:
*Please attach parcel image and/or parcel ID indicating the extent of the flight.
Approximate size of area to be flown:
Acres:
UAS to be used:
 Tempest (fixed-wing, long-range)
 X8 (Fixed-wing, short-range, future sensor mount coming)
 DJI M600 (rotary-wing, very short-range)
Sensors to be used:
 Sony A6000 (RGB orthoimagery, DEM, DSM, 3D point-cloud)
 MicaSence Red Edge (Near-infrared, NDVI)
 Headwall Hyperspec Nano (Hyperspectral)

Time Frame:

Will more flights need to be done (leaf on/ leaf off)? Describe:

Deliverable:
 Portal for ArcGIS
 ArcSDE geodatabase
 Map (paper)
 Additional custom image analysis. Specify:

Pricing is based on following:
Site visit = 8 hours (2-3 persons):
To include visiting the site acquiring keys or pin codes, establishing high-precision GPS Ground Control point locations, parking, take off/landing locations, alternate wind change location and whether or not the site needs to be broken into multiple flight segments.
Field equipment preparation = 1 hour (1 person, GIS Analyst):
To include charging batteries, going through airframe checklist, weather checking, packaging and vehicle loading.
Flight path creation = 1 hour (2 persons, Technician and Senior Analyst):
To include creation of take-off and landing, and alternate takeoff and landing (wind change) flight paths and the expected image acquisition flight paths. Sensor(s) to be used will affect lane width and height at which the UAS flies (max 400ft). Insure there are appropriate lead-in and exit distances, and adequate (60% minimum) front and side overlap.
Flight day = 8 hours (3 persons, all field personnel):
To include loading vehicle (if not done during the preparation phase) and driving to location. Unpack and set up all equipment, go through flight check for each flight. Flight safety pilot and command center radio communication, air traffic and weather monitoring. Recovery checklist clean up, pack and travel back. Clean and unpack UAV equipment, recover flight logs from autopilot and data from memory cards, check batteries for long term storage if needed.
Post processing 4-6 hours (2 persons):
To include memory card data (imagery) and flight log to be placed in Drone2map workstation folder. Start processing and monitor. Backup imagery check analysis, rerun if necessary. Share Imagery to Portal for web map and app creation (deliverable) or place on server for future access.
Flight time staff costs:
Senior GIS Analyst $100 per hour
GIS Analyst $75 per hour
GIS Technician $60 per hour

Travel (from Plummer GIS Department to location and back to Plummer office):
$0.535 per mile

Processing maintenance Fee:
Work Station $7,000.00
Software (Drone2map) $1,500.00 per year subscription
Total $8,500.00 / 40 flights per year $212.50/flight
Processing adjusted for sensor:
Sony $250.00
MicaSense $300.00

Tempest maintenance:
Electric Flight Motor, Neumotor 1509 series $300.00
Speed Controller $110.00
Switching Regulator $40.00
Folding Propeller $18.00
Wing Servo $ 50.00
Digital Telemetry Servos $150.00
LiPo 11,000 5S 18.5 V Battery $350.00
Total $ 1,018.00 / 40 flights per year = $25.45/flight

Sensor maintenance:
Sony A600 $600.00
Sony E20mm F2.8 Lens $350.00
Total $950.00 / 40 flights per year = $23.75/flight
Mica Sense $5,000.00 /40 flights per year = $125.00/flight

UAV Flights and Data Processing

Lake Coeur d’Alene (“the Lake”) and Coeur d’Alene River are the heart of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe (“the Tribe”): it is where they go for ceremony, food, transportation and recreation. The Lake and its surrounding waters have always held great spiritual significance for Tribal members. The tragic effects of over a century of North Idaho Silver Valley mining are still having effects on the entire Coeur d’Alene Basin ecosystem. Mining site’s toxic by products run into the streams, rivers, and wetlands, and ultimately into the Lake itself. Although this area was thoroughly studied in the late 1990’s during the Coeur d’Alene Basin Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) project, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe has wished to revisit some of these areas to determine changes where newer technology could either detect new information or enhance the existing data. Surveys of terrestrial and aquatic vegetation will be a very important use for the UAV system. For example, there are several aquatic invasive plant species in and around the Lake e.g. Phragmites, yellow flag iris, fragrant waterlily, wild rice and purple loosestrife. Simply, mapping the extent of these species would be very useful. Mapping surface matting Eurasian watermilfoil would be particularly helpful since it is actively managed in the Lake and traditional vegetation surveys are time intensive. Eurasian watermilfoil presents hazards to boats and swimmers who are prone to getting tangled it its sticky tendrils. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s GIS Program would like to use the newest technology throughout the sampling locations of the aboriginal territory to further identify and analyze concentrated areas of mining contaminants, and to follow the runoff through the various water systems and into Lake Coeur d’Alene. The Tribe would also like to find new tools in its battle against Eurasian milfoil. Prominent amongst these new technologies is the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), also known as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Remotely Piloted Aerial System (RPAS), or drone.



Link to UAS GIS Poster 2018

Headwall Photonics, Inc.

The Idaho Emergency Communications Commission (IECC) assists cities, counties, ambulance districts and fire districts in the establishment, management, operations, and accountability of consolidated emergency communications systems. To participate in the E911 program, the Coeur d’Alene IT/GIS department is creating blueprints of the Tribal government offices on the reservation. Using our employee phone directory, points were generated for each phone number, which corresponds to a physical office location. Offices in buildings without an existing room numbering system were assigned numbers, and a three character code was created for each building. Additional information for each phone number includes:

• Building Name

• Floor and Room Number

• Employee First and Last Name

• Employee Position

• Department

• Program

This information would allow any 911 call made within the Tribal internal phone network to be traced by the dispatcher, and then emergency personnel could be dispatched accordingly. A final project goal is to create and manage a web application available to Tribal departments, which will facilitate and simplify employee contact information.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribal GIS office worked with the US Environmental Protection Agency to identify potential repositories for relocation of mine tailings. This was done by using many criteria such as: distance from fish bearing streams, slope, population density, sensitive plant and animal species, to name just a few. This process also involved bringing in a group of diverse individuals to use group decision software that was linked to the GIS.

The following show how the different features were buffered to exclude areas from being potential sites.

For the past nine years the Tribal GIS office has maintained a Tribal parcel database. The database includes changes in ownership and tracking new Tribal acquisitions. In the past five years the GIS office has also taken on the task of mapping private ownership on the Reservation. At this time the Tribe has successfully merged two county assessor databases and incorporated their information into the GIS database.

Sample of reservation parcel mapping.

Beginning in 2003, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe IT/GIS Program has been the recipient of three multi-year Network Exchange Grants from the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). These grants provide funding to support the development of a National Environmental Exchange Network. The first grant assisted the Tribe with equipment necessary to aggregate information from both the agricultural burning project and the Pesticide Circuit Rider program. The second award provided the EPA with locational data associated with facilities listed in the Facility Registration System(FRS) database. Priority was given to facilities located within current reservation boundaries, and then expanded to include facilities located within the Coeur d'Alene aboriginal territory.

Pesticide Management

EPA Facility Registration System

The most recent award was granted in 2010 to create a database that would facilitate Water Quality Exchange (WQX) with the Environmental Protection Agency. This new system will assist in developing a Coeur d’Alene Lake basin wide nutrient survey, which is a critical step towards implementing the recently adopted Coeur d’Alene Lake Management Plan. Additionally, it provides a web based access point that will allow everyone access to water quality dated collected from the basin. As a secondary project, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s current Air Quality/Weather monitoring sensors funded by EPA will allow for both historic and real-time monitoring by the Tribe, EPA, and the public via a web site. The data acquired by the Air Quality/Weather sensors will assist in monitoring regional climate change.

The Coeur d'Alene Basin and Coeur d'Alene Lake have been the center of litigation and conflict over heavy metals contamination caused by mining activity for the past 100 years. The Tribe and IDEQ collaborated to develop the 2009 Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan (LMP) with the goal to protect and improve lake water quality by limiting basin-wide nutrient inputs that impair lake water quality conditions, which in turn influence the solubility of mining-related metals contamination contained in lake sediments. The EPA assisted the Tribe and IDEQ in developing the LMP by convening and participating in an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process.

A key component of the Lake Management Plan is to conduct water quality monitoring, so that all parties can have a better understanding of water quality trends. Water quality sampling has been ongoing on Lake Coeur d'Alene and its tributaries for many years. Most of this data exists in various Microsoft Excel spreadsheets scattered across the various organizations. Efforts toward getting this data into a format that could be digested by WQX are ongoing. However, submissions to WQX have been problematic and unsuccessful. In addition, all parties involved have received scrutiny from the public by not providing a publicly viewable list of water quality records. A second key component of the LMP is for the Tribe and IDEQ to develop a 3 year Nutrient Source Inventory. This inventory is critical for the future implementation of the LMP to be successful. This grant reduces the burden of data sharing by facilitating an efficient and user friendly process for data collected throughout the Coeur d'Alene Lake basin to be stored, accessed, and evaluated by the Tribe, State, and other interested parties. The primary goals of the grant consist of the following:

• Water quality database;

• Microsoft Access database connected to water quality database to allow user input;

• Web based access to water quality information;

• Web based GIS mapping;

• Creation of a standardized data collection form and data collection procedures;

• Network linkage for weather site;

• Program for downloading existing data from weather site;

• Web based access to weather station information.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe's IT/GIS program has received substantial experience in centralizing water quality records in databases and developing a digital data entry/submission application to WQX. The Shoalwater Bay Tribe had similar issues with its water quality records, and they entered into a contract with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's GIS Program to develop a database solution for their water quality records. We have taken that framework and made modifications to match the needs of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe.