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FUTURE DEFINING Woolsey Fire – Use Case Study How the National Park Service Acquired Actionable Data Using Quantix UAS By Alyce Moncourtois, Content Marketing It’s been over a year since the devastating to determine whether oak trees and vegetation in Woolsey Fire burned more than 96,000 acres the fire’s path would survive. The National Park across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. The fire Service used the collected data to determine destroyed 88% of National Park Service land within which vegetation areas would need to be restored. the Santa Monica They expressed their Mountains Recreation gratitude for the A re a and s et in team’s efforts and motion a need for an their outstanding environmental impact contribution to study to assess fire support the recovery damage in key areas of strategy. the park. The National “AeroVironment’s Park Service reached Quantix drone and out to AeroVironment De cision S uppor t for assistance, and the System have been a Quantix waits in position for takeoff at Paramount Ranch flight operation’s team valuable tool in helping in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. began flying Quantix our team assess the Photo credit: Eric Thompson as soon as the park environmental impact service clearance was obtained. of the Woolsey Fire,” said Jamie Richards, public “Within hours of receiving clearance, the flight information officer, National Park Service Western team had Quantix in the air over the affected burn Incident Management Team. “Their response and area collecting valuable aerial imagery data and support has been incredible.” providing any support needed to help the park’s In recognition of the team’s outstanding disaster assessment and recovery efforts,” said disaster assistance, Thompson received an AeroVironment Flight Operations Manager Eric IEEE Project of the Year award from the local Thompson. Buenaventura Section. The inscription reads: To Quantix quickly surveyed the area gaining recognize your help to the Park Rangers and the value the actionable insights into the scope and scale of the Quantix drone provided in assessing the damage caused damage. The main focus was to analyze plant health by the Woolsey Fire. www.avinc.com Copyright © 2020 AeroVironment, Inc. - All rights reserved. AeroVironmentTM Quantix imagery shows Paramount Ranch after the Woolsey Fire. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used by National Park Service scientists to analyze vegetation and plant health. Grey areas indicate bare ground; yellow areas show severely impacted plant life; and green areas represent surviving plants. Satellite imagery prior to the fire was used for comparison. Eric Thompson receives an IEEE Project of the Year Award on March 28, 2019, for the Wool