Application of unmanned aerial vehicle to manage environmental problem : A case study from forest fire and air pollution in Chiang Mai

Abstract

           This research aims to study the application of unmanned aerial vehicle to manage environmental problem in the case study of forest fire and air pollution which occurred in Chiang Mai. The result from the research could be summarized as follows; even though in the present there are varieties of new technologies available for application in environmental mission, the unmanned aerial vehicle possesses desirable features such as low cost of operation, mobility, and ability to record still and moving image, as well as ability to transfer real-time information to the ground team in order to rapidly enter the area on foot or with vehicle. Moreover, unmanned aerial vehicle only required a short period of time to learn to operate by both government and private sector employees who were volunteering in the disaster relief. However, the technology still has some operating limitation in which the vehicle requires some important basic knowledge such as pre-flight weather prediction, map and GPS reading, aerial photography, and photo editing. Operator also needs to consider aviation regulation and coordinate with ground authority for the flight mission to complete the task perfectly.