Development of a UAV-mounted Imaging FTIR for real-time monitoring of natural and anthropogenic hazards

Project Description

Rapid, accurate assessment of the source, nature, intensity and extent of natural and anthropogenic hazards is a critical capability in order to effectively respond to the needs of the affected population and environment and to implement an effective response and mitigation strategy. Natural hazards (e.g. forest fires, earthquakes) are characterised by the large area affected, the unexpected onset, rapidly changing scale and extent of the effects and severe disruption to access and communication to the affected areas. While the location of anthropogenic hazards such as pipelines, petrochemical plants, landfills, and hydraulic fracturing sites is known and the spatial extent is restricted the requirement for high spatial and temporal resolution monitoring over extended periods over often highly complex infrastructure poses a significant challenge for industry and regulatory agencies to comply with. Current methods to meet these challenges are still largely ground-based and manual. While ground-based methods are locally highly effective the limitation in the coverage of observations can often result in a poor understanding of the nature and extent of the hazard resulting in less effective containment and response strategies producing larger and longer lasting effects. Remote-sensed based approaches have been implemented using a range of sensor and platforms. These remote sensing approaches have produced useful measurements however their operational utility is severely limited as they cannot derive the most important physical parameters required for hazard monitoring which are surface temperature and especially gas species identification and quantification at the necessary ultra-high spatial resolution in real-time.