Drone & UAV Surveying for Professional Land Surveyors and Engineers

Course Description:

Upon completion of this course, participants will understand how to design, execute, validate, integrate, and certify UAV-based surveying operations that meet professional standards of care while leveraging the efficiency and analytical advantages of aerial measurement technologies.

Learning Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, the participant will be able to:

1. Apply federal aviation regulations and state licensure requirements to plan and execute compliant UAV surveying operations within the professional standard of care.
2. Evaluate and select appropriate UAV platforms, positioning architectures (RTK/PPK), and sensor technologies (RGB, LiDAR, multispectral, thermal) based on project tolerances, terrain conditions, vegetation density, and deliverable requirements.
3. Design defensible flight missions by calculating ground sampling distance (GSD), establishing proper overlap geometry, selecting appropriate altitude and speed, and incorporating environmental and corridor-specific considerations.
4. Design and implement survey-grade control networks through proper GCP distribution, GNSS control establishment, RTK/PPK correction integration, vertical datum management, and independent check point validation.
5. Process photogrammetric and LiDAR datasets using disciplined, documented workflows including alignment analysis, bundle adjustment review, point cloud classification, surface modeling, and orthomosaic generation.
6. Quantify and report horizontal and vertical accuracy through RMSE calculation, residual analysis, systematic error detection, and tolerance verification consistent with engineering and surveying standards.
7. Integrate UAV-derived datasets into CAD, GIS, and BIM environments while preserving coordinate system integrity, datum consistency, metadata transparency, and downstream design reliability.
8. Implement structured risk management and ethical safeguards addressing operational safety, cybersecurity, privacy considerations, insurance alignment, documentation retention, and professional liability exposure.