Woollahra Council Use Drones to Improve Community Engagement

Our client's problem:

Woollahra Municipal Council needed to make an informed assessment and engage community stakeholders regarding a proposal to re-naturalise Rushcutters Creek within the Woollahra Local Government Area. The naturalisation would also include the development of a pedestrian and cycling route.Traditionally this type of assessment would be made by multiple council staff members, making observations from a simple walkthrough. This would result in only standard ground photographic evidence and a written report.

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BIRDI's Solution

Woollahra Municipal Council partnered with BIRDI and our network of local, fully licenced drone operators to capture 2/3D Orthomosaic map images and 4K video of a flyover of each section following the land/foliage contour. All video and image captures were shared to council stakeholders via the BIRDI Platform.The BIRDI platform was able to assist in:

1. Access to a distributed network of qualified drone pilots - BIRDI has the largest directory of drone pilots with more than 1,900 across Australia.
2. Matched local drone pilots within hours of the request - saving time and money as drone pilots didn't need to be flown in to capture footage.
3. Aerial imagery processed and shared via the BIRDI platform - the imagery was immediately available via the BIRDI platform and was easily shared with council stakeholders.

Results

Woollahra Council stakeholders were able to better understand and evaluate the proposed greenway area and could facilitate discussion and community engagement using the insights generated from the drone capture.

Woollahra Municipal Council, Local Government

Woollahra Municipal Council is a local government area in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.