Drone survey deliverables arrive as a folder of files, and a folder is difficult to judge by looking at it. The aerial survey may have been flown perfectly and still be delivered short, and the day the files arrive is the cheapest day to find out.
Quick Answer
Check eight drone survey deliverables on arrival: the orthophoto, the surface model, the terrain model or contours if the ground was required, any volume figures with their base surfaces, the coordinate system named by code, the control used, a capture date and resolution statement, and a short report. Tick each one against the scope. A missing item found this week is a phone call. Found at design stage, it can be a second flight.
The list below is about the drone survey deliverables themselves: what should be in the folder and what each one is for. Whether the work was checked, and how that is evidenced, is a separate question that deserves its own review.
Eight drone survey deliverables to check on arrival
Each item says what the file is for, so you can tell whether the one you received does that job, not only whether a file with the right name exists.
1. The orthophoto
A single, geo-referenced image of the whole site, often delivered as a GeoTIFF.
For: context, marking up, and showing people who were not on site what is there.
2. The surface model
A height model of the top of whatever the camera saw: ground, stockpiles, plant, buildings and vegetation.
For: volumes of material that sits on the surface, and a record of the site as captured.
3. The terrain model or contours, if the ground was required
A model meant to represent the ground itself, with objects on top removed, and contours derived from it. On topographical work this is usually the file the designer actually opens.
For: design, levels and drainage.
4. Volume figures, with the two surfaces behind them
If the scope included volumes, the figure should arrive with the surfaces it was calculated between, and a plan showing the boundary used.
For: being able to repeat or challenge the number later. A volume on its own cannot be checked.
5. The coordinate system, named by code
The horizontal and vertical reference, stated in words and by the code published in the EPSG registry, so your software reads the files in the right place.
For: avoiding a model that loads in the wrong place, in plan or in height, against your design.
6. The control used
A list of the ground control points and their coordinates, with who established them.
For: tying the next survey to the same reference, so repeat flights can be compared.
7. Capture date and resolution
The date of the flight and the ground sample distance: the ground area one pixel represents. That is a statement of image detail, not of positional accuracy.
For: knowing which day the data describes, and how fine the imagery is.
8. A short report
A few pages that list the files, the reference, the control and anything that limited the job on the day, such as areas that could not be flown.
For: anyone who opens the folder in a year's time without the person who ordered it.
Key point
Judge the delivery against the scope, not against a list of every file a drone job could produce. The question is whether you received what you paid for, in a form your team can use.
Why checking on the day matters
A gap in the drone survey deliverables costs almost nothing to fix in the first week and a great deal to fix once design has started.
Sites change. Stockpiles move, excavations deepen, and vegetation grows. If a file was never produced, the data behind it can often be processed again from the original flight. If the scope was never flown, or the site has changed, the only fix is another visit. Opening each file and confirming it loads in the right place takes an hour and removes that risk.
Received a drone survey folder you are unsure about?
Send us the file list and the original scope. We will tell you what is missing.
Ask us to review the handoverAgree the list before the flight
The easiest way to check drone survey deliverables on arrival is to have written them into the scope before anyone flew.
Name the files, the formats your software needs, the coordinate system and who receives the delivery. This is the same scoping that makes drone survey quotes comparable, because each provider then prices the same list rather than their own assumption of it. It also makes quotations from different providers easier to set side by side.
Key point
The handover checklist and the scope are the same document written at two different times. Write it once, before the job, and use it again on the day the files arrive.
Scoping a drone survey now?
Tell us what the outputs are for. We will list the files you should expect before we fly.
Get a drone survey quoteWhere survey cannot help you
A complete set of drone survey deliverables still has limits, and knowing them avoids expecting a file to answer a question it cannot.
A photographic survey records what the camera can see from above. It cannot record ground the camera cannot see, under dense canopy, inside structures or beneath water, and a complete folder does not change that. It cannot recreate a condition that has since been excavated or covered. And it cannot turn an image-only delivery into design data after the fact if the scope never asked for the height models.
What it can do on opencast and construction sites alike is deliver a defined set of files against a stated reference, with the limits of the job written down. That is what makes the delivery checkable, and a checkable delivery is what you should expect to receive.
Repeat flights on a working pit or site?
We can keep each survey on the same control, so the files compare.
See volumetric surveysLet's Build With Accuracy.
Aerial survey with the deliverables named in the scope, so the handover can be checked on the day it arrives.
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