Using Unmanned Aerial Systems for Landfill Management

As municipal solid waste is unloaded into landfill cells, the waste compacts and settles, reducing the landfill’s surface elevation. Accurately measuring and documenting how much compaction has occurred is an important task in landfill management. Although they are relatively new technologies, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and aerial maps are the perfect tools for measuring landfill compaction accurately and efficiently.

Working with Cowlitz County Headquarters Landfill, FLO utilized a fixed-wing UAS to capture high-resolution orthoimagery, contours, and 3D point cloud data, georeferenced to the county’s local coordinate system. Landfill managers used the information to document landfill conditions and volumes and update the remaining capacity of each landfill cell, helping the landfill managers better estimate the total remaining capacity of the landfill.

Our deliverables were ready for seamless AutoCad Civil 3D integration and were validated by a county surveyor, who determined that the topographic surface was accurate to six inches.