Drone photography trial for weed surveillance in the South West ‘Boosting Biosecurity Defence’ project funded by Royalties 4 Regions.
Members of the Serpentine Jarrahdale community are invited to help search for the water Hyacinth in the Birega drain and Serpentine river.
This will be done from personal computers by individuals viewing images on a central website, taken by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV – ‘drone’). Each photo equates to a location on the ground and is assessed as having the weed or not.
The purpose of the trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of the images produced by an UAV for the purpose of weed surveillance.
Background
In February 2016, DAFWA engaged a UAV company to take photos of a 28km reach of the Serpentine river, between Mundijong road in the north and Paganoni road in the south. Approximately 20,000 aerial images of the river were taken during this process.
Your role
DAFWA is seeking assistance from the community to view images of the Birega drain and Serpentine river, searching for the presence or absence of water Hyacinth. This will involve people joining the search on their computers from the comfort of their homes.
- Register on the image hosting website https://friendsofthefitzroy.com.au/?page_id=1352 or by search “Friends of the Fitzroy” then click on the water Hyacinth tab at the top of the home page.
- You will receive a Username and Password so you can log on to look at more images whenever you like.
- View the sample images to get your ‘eye in’ so you can recognise water Hyacinth at a glance.
- You will be given images one at a time and asked to select if water Hyacinth is ‘present’, ‘absent’ or ‘maybe’ in the image. Once you have made a selection you then move on to the next image.
- You can access the website whenever you like, viewing as many images as you have time to do.
The Friends of the Fitzroy website is hosting the images due to their highly successful community surveillance of rubber vine in the Kimberley.
Get started whenever you like! Or, for further information please contact Landcare SJ
Serpentine River Survey Map
