Riverland drones rise above to deliver sky-high safety

The rapid evolution of drone technology is creating diverse opportunities for SA Water’s Riverland team to improve operational efficiency, customer experience and enable greater safety outcomes.

The utility is embracing the rise of unmanned aerial vehicles commonly coined as ‘drones’, with SA Water’s seven licensed drone pilots, one of whom is based in Berri, maturing its capability and progressively using the technology at more of its water and wastewater facilities.

SA Water General Manager of Business Services Jamie Hollamby said the popular technology enables a safer working environment for their people.

“Inspecting our infrastructure is critical to ensuring we continue to deliver reliable services for our customers, but due to their size or location, some parts of our sites can be difficult to access,” Jamie said.

“The safety and wellbeing of our people is always paramount, and as a safer alternative to climbing high ladders and tanks in working environments, we’re using drones to help get these important jobs done.

“Drones enable us to remotely view and film the condition of structures, such as outlet towers and tunnels, providing close-up, high-quality images, even in the dark, and when we need to see every little bit of these large structures, comes in very handy.

“In addition to eliminating safety risks by removing the person from a particular situation, using our drones is also reducing the time taken to complete tasks, which in turn, is reducing operational costs.”

Along with asset inspections, SA Water’s two fixed-wing and four multirotor drones are taking flight to capture aerial and thermal photography and videography to provide greater perspective to large-scale ground operations, assess environmental health and evolution over time, and monitor the progress of capital projects.

This includes a recent survey of 40 kilometres of shoreline of Lake Victoria north-east of Renmark, taking more than 20,000 photos and producing surface and vegetation comparisons to determine shoreline stability and monitor yearly changes.

Previously, SA Water’s Riverland team have captured aerial photography of its locks and weirs situated along the River Murray to assist condition inspections, as well as video transects to help monitor the health of floodplain vegetation near Loxton and Waikerie.

“As we continue to develop and embed the capability, we’re learning more each day about the various applications and benefits of drones,” Jamie said.

“In 2016, we started with two drone pilots and we’re striving to continue finessing our capability and aim to have 20 of our people across the business trained as licensed pilots by the end of 2020.”

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