UAV4Resilience

On Monday 12th February 2018, Tropical Cyclone Gita impacted the main island of Tongatapu in Tonga, as a category 4 cyclone, with wind speeds reaching up to 233km/hr. A state of disaster was declared on the island and the clean up and repair process began. V-TOL Aerospace’s assistance was offered and accepted by The World Bank, the National Emergency Management Office of Tonga, and supported by DFAT and the Government of Tonga (Particularly the Civil Aviation Department). The UAV4Resilience project initiated by The World Bank and conducted by V-TOL Aerospace was aimed at developing UAV capabilities for small pacific island nations. The project involved using LiDAR, high resolution optical and Multi-spectral payloads, as well as fixed wing, multi rotors and boat launched and recovered aircraft on the islands nations of Fiji and Tonga. **100KM2 of data collected including -LiDAR -High Resolution Optical -NDVI -Bathymetry -Baseline Natural Disaster Data -Emergency SOP development After Tropical Cyclone Gita impacted Tongatapu, and within 72 hours of receiving the deployment request from The World Bank, V-TOL Aerospace deployed to Tonga on a RAAF C130 with a DFAT assistance cargo flight. V-TOL’s deployment team met with NEMO, CAD and ATS to discuss how best V-TOL’s services could be implemented. **In 5 days V-TOL Collected: -270 km2 of High resolution Optical -Over 500GB of processed data -Operational Range of 10km radius -15km2 per 2 hour flight -ADS-B integration For more information visit: http://v-tol.com/disasterrelief/