Using drones to watch beavers build
The goal of this project was to watch beavers rebuild their damming complex after spring flooding.
In the Rocky Mountain west, spring floods wash out beaver dams. Beavers rebuild their dams every year. This project was to observe that process with UAV photogrammetry, watching beavers build from May to August over a single summer.
When I started my doctoral studies, I envisioned studying the mechanics of beaver dams. As a mechanical engineer who spent nearly the entirety of her undergraduate research looking at the biomechanics of biopolymer gels, I thought this would be a great project that would work to my already developed strengths. I even had a plan. I was first going to make a 3d model of a beaver dam, and then systematically tear it apart, and make miniature beaver dams to test their mechanical properties on an Instron and rheometer.
I had a plan. I had my drone. I had a newly acquired UAV license. I had blind optimism. I had no clue what I was doing.
I was up in the air and the dams were tiny. At least tiny compared to the damming complex, which was filled with multiple dams, trails, canals, ponds, a lodge, and a few scent mounds. I was even able to make my first orthomosaic. This thesis project then became my full personality for 5 years.
In the Rocky Mountain west, spring floods wash out beaver dams. Beavers rebuild their dams every year. This project was to observe that process with UAV photogrammetry, watching beavers build from May to August over a single summer.
When I started my doctoral studies, I envisioned studying the mechanics of beaver dams. As a mechanical engineer who spent nearly the entirety of her undergraduate research looking at the biomechanics of biopolymer gels, I thought this would be a great project that would work to my already developed strengths. I even had a plan. I was first going to make a 3d model of a beaver dam, and then systematically tear it apart, and make miniature beaver dams to test their mechanical properties on an Instron and rheometer.
I had a plan. I had my drone. I had a newly acquired UAV license. I had blind optimism. I had no clue what I was doing.
I was up in the air and the dams were tiny. At least tiny compared to the damming complex, which was filled with multiple dams, trails, canals, ponds, a lodge, and a few scent mounds. I was even able to make my first orthomosaic. This thesis project then became my full personality for 5 years.