A Comparative Study Of Deep Water Sampling With An Unmanned Aerial Water Sampling System (UAWSS) To Traditional Sampling Methods: A Case Study From Dillon Reservoir, Summit County, Colorado
Straight, Brian 1 ; Castendyk, Devin 2 ; Ransom, Brandon 3 ; Filiatreault, Pierre 4 ; Carroll, Jordan 5 ; Wei, Ran 6
1 ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ - Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
2 Golder
3 Denver Water
4 Hatch Associates Consultants
5 ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ - Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
6 ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ - Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
Unmanned Aerial Systems, commonly known as drones provide an innovative approach to sample the water column in a lake setting. An unmanned aerial water sampling system (UAWSS) has been developed and used to sample Dillon Reservoir in Summit County, Colorado. The UAWSS currently consists of a hexacopter UAV that can be equipped with a conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) probe or 1.2L water sampler. This emerging technology was first tested on September 20, 2016 at Dillon Reservoir. The test flight profiled Dillon Reservoir with the CTD and collected a water sample from 25 m depth. The CTD profile showed a possible layer of surface water inflow from the Snake River. The next test flight conducted at Dillon Reservoir was on April 12, 2017. The accuracy of in-flight procedures to collect a sample at a specific depth was examined by using a pressure transducer attached to the Niskin bottle. Depth measurements taken with the UAS ground station were within +/- 0.7 m of depths measured with the pressure transducer. Procedural protocol for the UAWSS involves profiling the water column with the CTD profiler before water sampling, profiling identifies depths of stratified layers which are targeted for sampling. In this presentation, we provide a comparative study of water samples collected from Dillon Reservoir at the same depths and same day using traditional methods verses the UAWSS. Analyses of cations, anions, conductivity and pH will be compared. The goal is to validate that UAWSS methods provide identical results as traditional methods.
susan.dunlap@mtstandard.com, S. D. (n.d.). Tech student creating new technology to put unmanned boat on the Berkeley Pit. Retrieved February 18, 2018, from http://mtstandard.com/news/local/tech-student-creating-new-technology-to-put-unmanned-boat-on/article_b96ee672-b18a-5fea-a48a-defc0f782469.html
Water-slurping Drones Have Broad Potential | Research at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2018, from http://research.unl.edu/annualreport/2014/water-slurping-drones-have-broad-potential/