In an attempt to address the perennial problems of land access and intensive labour requirements for infrastructure surveys, HiDef has developed a video inspection survey service which has been employed by Forewind, the developer of the UK’s largest windfarm Dogger Bank.
HiDef deployed its super HD camera technology from fixed wing aircraft in a similar manner to ornithological surveys the business already delivers, although camera resolutions needed for this new service are four times finer than the standard resolutions. John Martin HiDef’s managing director explains “following discussions with a number of environmental and engineering consultancies it became obvious if aerial surveys were to be of use key features such as grass types would need to be identified, testing then demonstrated camera resolutions would need to be at least .5cm ground resolution. Our technical team also developed new techniques to allow engineers to reliably measure natural and man-made without needing to access the site”.
Alastair Mackay of Forewind commented “HiDef video imagery has provided us with a very valuable additional resource to support assessment of onshore cable routes by our engineering and ecology contractors. We believe the use of aerial surveys on our proposed cable routes will speed up the necessary data gathering needed to inform the planning process and reduce disruption”.
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Offshore WIND staff, February 06, 2012;