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The С����Ƶ has been part of an international collaboration into the effectiveness of drones for post-disaster search and rescue missions in Mozambique.

The experiment was run by the and the , in conjunction with Mozambique’s national disaster management agency (INGD).

The С����Ƶ team, led by Professor Richard Teeuw, worked alongside teams from Mozambique, Canada, South Africa and Portugal, as well as a (UK ISAR) team.

The experiment involved many types of drone – both fixed-wing and quadcopter –&�Բ�����;looking for targets on land and in water, with simultaneous flights over multiple sites. For a situational overview of the drone test area, the С����Ƶ team provided imagery from the ’s Sentinel-1 radar satellite and the PlanetScope micro-satellite constellation, as well as elevation data from the Japanese-American PALSAR radar satellite.

The University’s Global Earth Model (GEM) group provided expertise in coding and Big Data analytics, to produce a prototype app for faster interpretation of drone images, enabling more effective locating of people in need of post-disaster assistance.

Professor Teeuw, from the University’s Centre for Applied Geosciences, said: “This was one of the largest experiments ever conducted into the effectiveness of drones for wide-area searches. The team were able to apply expertise developed during NERC-funded fieldwork into the impacts of Hurricane Maria in Dominica and research into coastal risk mapping carried out during the ongoing , funded by the International Partnership Programme of the .”

, from the University’s Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, provided support for the drone experiment and the onsite World Food Programme media communications office. He said: “Due to the size of the experiment, the logistics of deploying multiple drones was very complex. The University team played a key role in the drone deployment and processing of the ensuing aerial photos, for over 30 drone flights.”