Applied Ecological Services (AES) of Brodhead, WI and Ayres Associates of Eau Claire, WI, have jointly announced the addition of new services for aerial imaging and remote sensing available through the purchase and co-ownership of a Leica RCD30 aerial camera. The medium format digital system will provide color and near-infrared (NIR) imagery to support a wide variety of projects, from engineering grade mapping to environmental assessments.
Introduced by Leica Geosystems as a digital follow-on to its highly successful RC30 film cameras, the RCD30 is a medium-format digital imaging system developed for a wide range of photogrammetric and remote sensing applications. The 60 MP single camera head design delivers co-registered, multispectral imagery in the red, green, blue, and NIR portions of the spectrum. The sleek modular design allows the camera to fit easily in aircraft previously outfitted with film cameras, and the RCD30 integrates with many LiDAR sensors, including the Leica ALS series.
The camera purchase, in conjunction with flight services offered by AES, provides Ayres and AES with in-house aerial acquisition services for clients including governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, land trusts and others. Image collection with the RCD30 will be done by AES and post-processing by Ayres; both firms will use imagery to support work that includes ecological assessments and monitoring, utility corridor mapping, forestry, mining, water resources, invasive species management and restoration planning projects. The co-ownership of the medium format digital camera allows Ayres and AES to provide rapid mobilization and cost effective aerial acquisition services throughout the Midwest and elsewhere.
About Applied Ecological Services
 Established in 1978, AES consulting and design services offer comprehensive, coordinated expertise in ecological science, sustainable civil engineering, landscape architecture, and GIS. Consulting and design services are supported by an experienced contracting division that implements on-the-ground ecological projects, backed by one of the largest, most diverse native seed and plant nurseries in the U.S. This unique combination of in-house staff experience – bringing together ecology, engineering, design, data management, contracting and nursery science – provides innovation, accountability, flexibility, streamlined project management, and, most importantly, designs that work. With offices in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York Kansas, and Iowa, AES conducts projects throughout the U.S., Canada, Central and South America. AES established its unique flight services division and has supported AES projects with cost-efficient aerial monitoring and imaging for more than five years.
About Ayres Associates
Ayres is an employee-owned, multi-specialty engineering consulting firm that has served public and private clientele since its incorporation in 1959. The firm provides services in geospatial mapping and imagery; transportation, civil, structural, water resources, levee, and river engineering; energy corridors; architecture; environmental science; surveying; and grant and planning services. Its staff of almost 300 provides services from 13 offices in seven states, with corporate headquarters in Eau Claire, WI. The firm’s geospatial division in Madison, WI, provides clients mapping and imagery services, including aerial imagery acquisition, digital orthoimagery, planimetric and topographic mapping, digital terrain modeling, and LiDAR acquisition and processing. Numerous entities around the country have benefitted from the geospatial division’s expertise in mapping and remote sensing for engineering applications and floodplain mapping. These include state Departments of Transportation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and numerous state and local governments around the nation. Learn more at http://www.ayresassociates.com/services_mapping_gis.html.
Our Clients
Land Trust Community: This is the fastest growing conservation community in the world and the majority of members in land trusts are not technically trained persons and most also do not have experience taking care of land, or important ecological systems.
Public Agencies: such as the Army corps of engineers, USEPA, and other agencies are charged with monitoring flooding, wetland mitigation, levee conditions, coastal erosion such as on lake Michigan, algae blooms and water contamination in lakes and rivers; and municipalities require everything from urban forest tree assessments (looking for trees infested with Emerald green ash borer, or other diseases, etc) to monitoring and documenting compliance with land development permits, stormwater management permits and this high resolution imagery could be used to fulfill many needs of public agencies.
County and State Highway and Rail road and transmission line Right-of-way owners: could find use in monitoring their Row’s for erosion, woody plant invasion, to target line and ROW maintenance.
Land development community: can benefit from the high resolution imagery and upgraded high resolution topographic mapping capability of this imagery. AES can offer our own partners (e.g. conservare, LRK projects, etc) very high resolution imaging and topographic mapping at far less then the going rate for facilitating accurate designs.
Landowners, Real estate firms, legal firms, Farm-ranch-property management firms: could benefit by having detailed aerial photographs and AES importing and superimposing property plats to show boundaries.
Carbon project proponents: in forests, grasslands, rangelands, wetlands---This imagery can be used for doing the project development and design documents and measurements needed to document existing and future conditions on carbon projects. Particularly useful will be documenting above ground standing vegetation, crop and plant residues, determining acreages of restoration treatment, etc.
General
Long- and short-term ecological change
Quantification of plant cover, bare ground, surface soil composition (rock, sand, etc)
Disaster response: flooding , fire, landslide
Soils and geological mapping
Vegetation
Invasive-species mapping and monitoring in terrestrial and aquatic settings.
Critical habitat, special-status plant and animal surveying.
Bank erosion and impairment measurements
Vegetation density, diversity, vigor, and stress in natural lands or agriculture lands
Forest Management/Disturbance
Aquatic
Algal growth and abundance
Stream and river levee conditions
Geomorphic conditions
Riparian buffers and floodplain
Aquatic vegetation
Invasive-aquatic-plant obstruction
Water quality, including turbidity
Flotsam and erosion and sediment deposition
Urban Infrastructure
Tree-canopy, impervious-area and cover-type mapping
Road and infrastructure inspection and condition
Sanitary infrastructure
Imperviousness measurements
Watershed and Stormwater
Best Management Practice (BMP) strategies
Impervious cover and watershed sensitivity analysis
Stormwater and flood reduction
Regulatory
Compliance surveillance, monitoring and reporting
Failed septic systems or/or utilities
Planning for parks, open space, greenways, developments and conservation
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