We started this service in 2006 after being assaulted by mosquitoes from a neighbor's producing pool. In discussions with our local mosquito abatement district, we discovered that there was no easy way for districts to determine the location of such pools. With the advice of several district managers, including John Rusmisel (Alameda County), Robert Gay (San Mateo County) and Tim Mulligan (Santa Clara County) we developed an end-to-end pool detection solution. We photographed green pools and processed the images through our newly developed software system that retrieved pool addresses. The final step was to put the pool images and data in an easy to use format compatible with popular GIS systems as well as Google Earth. 

The first year was exciting and fun, but we realized that having the photographer hang out of the aircraft while snapping pictures was going to be not only a staffing roadblock, but a quality control and repeatability issue.

As you might expect, we are continually improving our capabilities.

In 2007, we developed and installed a patent-pending aerial camera system in a specially modified Cessna TU206 aircraft. This new computer-controlled camera and servo system was integrated with our image GIS system and our address retrieval software. This allowed us to take highly detailed area pictures and then complete image and data analysis on the ground. Survey time is fast, coverage areas are large, and quality and accuracy is consistent.

In 2008, added an astonishingly powerful Canon camera and lens combination to the airborne system. This improves the resolution by 116% compared to the prior year's images, giving us visibility of objects as small as pool sweepers -- all while flying at 5,000 feet. We have developed new flight planning software that integrates with Google Earth. This integration now lets our customers easily tell us where they want us to fly, and then allows us to send the customer accurate plots of planned tracks. These planned tracks are the same ones we load to our airborne GPS systems to accurately guide our seasoned pilots during survey flights.

Post processing of the images and data has greatly improved since 2006. This includes integration with most county parcel-level GIS mapping systems; Districts now have the capability to see the actual address of the parcel in which the target pool located. We have developed a new technician dispatch report that places a photo snippet of the target, a map showing the location of the target, and tabular data all on one easily-printed page. Additionally, we now utilize a dedicated FTP server that allows districts to access the raw geo-located data the day immediately following the flight.

A producing pool can source millions of mosquitoes per week and an un-maintained pool can turn green quickly in warm weather. In areas that have dense pool concentrations, aerial surveys are the only reliable way to find these pools. A single recent survey over Bakersfield identified 803 addresses of pools that needed attention. In another case, a single 2700'x3900' image taken over Palmdale had 27 targets, of which 52% appeared to be producing. See the statistics page for some more striking numbers.

Our survey services are modestly priced. Call us for an estimate for your district!