Startup’s Ranger App Uses Cloud-Hosted Drone and Satellite Imagery to Monitor User Land
News of Emirates – A new app that can manage conservation plans and verify corporate environmental promises with clear imagery from the sky is being powered in partnership with Esri and its ArcGIS Image for ArcGIS Online. The Ranger app from Skytec, a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based geospatial and remote sensing firm, uses aerial drones and satellite imagery to remotely monitor a subscriber’s property from above.
Ranger provides notifications when changes emerge, without the costly expense and time spent for on-site monitoring. Observable changes to the land could include encroachment by others; deforestation; impending pest infestations; and other environmental concerns including natural and unnatural disasters such as floods, fires, and spills.
“ArcGIS Image for ArcGIS Online has given us more time to focus on what we do best—analysis—rather than having to stand up the infrastructure operating behind the scenes. With Esri, those secure back-end systems are built in,” said Skytec Chief Technology Officer Andrew Carroll.
The technology from Redlands, California-based Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, processes and securely stores the imagery powering Skytec’s Ranger app in the cloud.
“Being able to understand and accurately measure success is half the battle in conservation, and this app allows users to know the precise impact of their efforts,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. “Skytec created the kind of sustainable solution our world needs to solve urgent climate concerns, and we’re pleased to partner in providing the tools to help the firm grow.”
Through Ranger, customers can choose how frequently they receive timed reports showing activity and highlighting changes on the areas they want monitored. If customers want more information about a change event, they can order higher-resolution satellite or drone imagery captured with lidar or send their own staff to observe in person. Those choices are then coordinated through Esri’s ArcGIS Survey123 application.
Ranger is already monitoring more than 100,000 acres across the country with help from ArcGIS Image for ArcGIS Online. Among its clients are the Palmer Land Conservancy and the Hudson Highlands Land Trust.
Skytec CEO Bill Rogers and Carroll started the company as commercial drone operations began to take off, by monitoring small sites with unmanned aerial vehicles before expanding to include piloted flight observations. Now, with satellite imagery from Planet, Skytec wants Ranger to be a global solution to climate change by providing macro views of land showing if conservation strategies are working.
“We’re anticipating clients’ needs for seamless monitoring at any level of any location around the globe,” Rogers said. “This service is beneficial for clients in a variety of industries, from natural resource management to environmental mitigation firms and utilities.”
The application also has the potential to prove an entity has kept its environmental promises.
“There’s an opportunity to begin to come in and fill the data science needs that are behind corporate sustainability initiatives,” Carroll said. Monitoring can show where mitigation measures have been made, where growth has occurred, and what, if any, recovery has been achieved. It can also monitor for carbon offsets and ecological ecosystem banking.
“Everyone’s talking a great talk, but where’s the data behind it,” Carroll said of what Ranger provides.
The Ranger application, built with Esri’s ArcGIS Web AppBuilder, is optimized for desktop and tablet use. The partnership with Esri also gives Skytec and its Ranger customers access to the mapping leader’s extensive library of online data, including its ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, and a seamless experience for existing Esri users.
To learn how Esri can help businesses more easily access, process, and manage imagery in the cloud, visit go.esri.com/arcgisimage.
