Midland Landfill UAV Volumetric Survey

On average, the City of Midland’s Sanitary Landfill accepts 550 tons of waste to its 340-acre property from every corner of Midland County each day. To continue to operate and hold its licensure with regulatory agencies, the landfill must have land surveys and volume calculations done throughout the year.

Spicer Group survey technicians flew a small, unmanned aerial vehicle over the entire landfill property to complete a photogrammetric survey in a safe, efficient, and timely manner through an active work zone. During this calculated flight plan, the drone’s camera takes 20-megapixel images every two seconds to ensure a proper photograph overlap. The drone’s onboard GPS then geotags each image to a known position which will allow all the images to be stitched together into one 3D model.

The software Spicer Group provides along with the survey data allows the user to measure distances between points with a click of their mouse and calculate how much volume has been consumed in the landfill over time.