Through all this research, I’ve been thinking about how drones and balloons and/or kites could assist with my Master Plan. A lot of my focus is on the coastal dune ecosystem of north Florida and how the needs of the animals and plants intersect with the needs and interests of humans and trying to find a balance between the two.
Both balloons and drones can provide a quick and easy way to map out coastal areas and see which spaces have been disturbed by humans, which are untouched and more.
For example, last semester I wrote a paper on the nesting densities of sea turtles on a 4-mile stretch of beach in St. Johns County Florida. I painstakingly analyzed satellite images of each residential address over 5 years and cross-referenced them with permit applications for sea wall construction. Had I used a drone, I could have easily determined which houses have sea walls on a matter of hours! Hindsight is 20/20. Oh well.
What I can do in the future is potentially monitor biodiversity within the dune ecosystem. Balloon mapping would be a much less invasive method than walking through the dunes potentially disturbed fragile root systems of the plants or smooshing the burrows of beach mice!
Bird's Eye View 