Winyama scales the use of OpenDroneMap using AWS technology
Winyama launched Indigenous Mapping Workshop (IMW) Australia in July 2019 with the goal of providing free, culturally appropriate and inclusive geospatial training to Indigenous organisations, groups and communities. Since launching, IMW’s training has expanded from an annual, once-off, in-person-only workshop, to multiple training sessions per year, in various cities across Australia and online on-demand training, which is accessible 24/7.
The Winyama team recently developed an OpenDroneMap (ODM) solution for IMW. This solution was created for Indigenous rangers and Native Title holders who frequently incorporate the use of drones to care for Country. The adoption of drone flying eases some of the challenges that come with monitoring and tracking changes across such vast areas of land. To offer some perspective; the Murujuga ranger group, based on Burrup Peninsula is responsible for monitoring Murujuga National Park which is approximately 50km squared—twice the size of Wadjemup (Rottnest Island). This extent of land requiring care is not exclusive to the Murujuga rangers. There are hundreds of ranger groups and Native Title holders in Australia who maintain land of this size and larger.
How can OpenDroneMap help with land management?
ODM is a free and open source software that allows its users to generate maps, orthomosaics, 3D models and elevation models from drone imagery. Once rangers collect their imagery, ODM software can be used to process and analyse the captured content.
For example, users can turn their captured drone photos into orthomosaic basemaps, which provides high resolution and up-to-date maps of remote areas. These maps can offer greater detail about the landscape than satellite imagery, which helps rangers swiftly respond to issues, provide more detailed reporting and have persuasive discussions on land decisions with other community members.
How was Amazon Web Services (AWS) technology incorporated?
Winyama used AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to increase the accessibility of ODM. Running ODM on an EC2 instance allows our IMW participants to use Winyama’s virtual server instead of their own.
This means that IMW participants have an easy way of using applications like ODM, regardless of their current computer’s storage and specifications. Drone image processing demands a lot of computing resources. EC2 removes any uncertainty of performance, all that’s needed is an internet connection.
In this case, Winyama took a real-time auto scaling approach, allowing IMW participants to complete multiple drone image processing tasks at once—a task that would not be possible if ODM software was running on a single computer server. Integrating AWS EC2 has increased efficiencies around image processing and equipped IMW to meet server demand, no matter the group size.
“I think the biggest selling point of ODM is how it enables Indigenous rangers to grab a snapshot of how their Country looks right now. It’s common for satellite imagery to be a little out of date and not reflective of the seasonal state of a place, which can be very significant for analysing things like health of plants, waterways as well as access to those areas. ”
GIS Analyst, Merindah Bairnsfather-Scott setting up computers for data processing
Our ODM solution in action
The Winyama team trialled this solution at the Pilbara Cultural and Land Management Project (PCLMP) Forum.
Winyama’s IT Consultant, Tim Cable and GIS Analyst, Martin Rocks, facilitated training on ODM before joining the participants on Country to collect and process their own data. “The rangers at the forum enjoyed the drone training. Once they saw their own captured imagery stitched together into a map on ODM, a lot of conversations were started. I think the participants could all see the potential value of a drone mapping solution like this for their organisation,” said Tim Cable.
Do you see a use case for virtual servers on AWS EC2 in your organisation? Get in touch.