On top of the Tajik Mountains - UAV DRR mission

16 Aug, 2016

Darjomj : Landing area

As part of the initiative “Drone in Humanitarian Action” CartONG has been deployed in Tajikistan for a challenging mission in support of disaster risk reduction project. Funded by the European Union's DG ECHO and organized with our partner FSD, the mission aimed to map 2 watersheds of ~20km² in the Pamir Mountains.

Barsem Village, devasted by debris flow in July 2015 | Barsem: source of debris flow | Barsem: erosion

The collected data with the Ebees will be used by two partners: FOCUS for Humanitarian Assistance (part of the Agah Khan Agency for Habitat) and the German development agency GIZ for further analysis on erosion, risk reduction training and mapping for villages and study of pasture and land cover vegetation.

Images have been planned to be between 10 cm and 20 cm of resolution in both sites. The outputs are:

orthophotos for mapping and observation
elevation models (DEM)
density of vegetation assesment (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index - NDVI).

Darjomj : data transfer in the evening, and glue maintenance

The context made the mission challenging. Areas for launching and landing the drone were difficult and not adequate, with rocks and slope for many of them. However, the team reinforced by local volunteers was able to catch them in most cases.

This mission has been a lesson learned for everyone involved. Even if we were not the first to do it (DroneAdventure – Matterhorn), we were able to judge and test the capabilities of the Ebee with the effects of high altitude and high wind turbulence in this mountainous environment. Small and light, the Ebees could be transported on men’s back to the flight areas.