2015

Damage from high winds from bird’s eye view

 Authorities in Latvia, including JSC ‘’Latvijas Valsts Mezhi” (LVM), continue assessing the damage done by the August 12 storm to the Vidusdaugava  (Mid-daugava) Forest Zone, where 12 experts have been busily working, also engaging a drone to reach the most remote locations.

 This small-size pilotless aviation machine is run by remote control and equipped with video and/or standard camera. The footage can be tracked on land monitors live during flight, or later – data processed.

Assessing storm damage via drone LVM senior forestry expert Kaspars Riže has these comments: ‘’Recording felled and/or snapped trees is a painstaking process as it is primarily conducted on foot, roads and pathways are often blocked, wooded areas impassable – often sheer luck is required. Therefore, such technology eases our job, speeds it up – at the least we can  assess the damage visually.” 

Initial reports have approximatly 10,000 cubic meters of trees in the Vidusdaugava Forest Zone affected by the severe storm of August 12.