Water quality monitored with drone flights

The new service, which combines Skyports Drone Services’ remote drone operations and winch technology with Makutu’s water testing solution, has launched with a pilot study for Northumbrian Water.  

The test flights demonstrated how beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) electric drone operations can be used to automate water quality surveys to improve access to hard-to-reach areas, reduce carbon footprint, gather more data over a larger area, and obtain results faster.  

The service aims to provide an alternative to current labour-intensive data collection processes which require personnel to manually collect water and return it to a lab for testing.

In a statement, Alex Brown, director of Skyports Drone Services, said: “Water quality is a hugely important issue in the UK.  The unique solution we’ve developed with Makutu provides water companies with critical real-time data, enabling better monitoring, maintenance, and faster response to issues. With Northumbrian Water alone covering an area of 9,400km2, the potential positive impact to the environment, to field personnel, and to the communities that access these river and coastal locations is enormous.” 

Skyports Drone Services deployed its Speedbird Aero aircraft for phase one of the flights. The aircraft was fitted with winch technology which enables Skyports Drone Services to carry Makutu’s water sensor technology to testing sites. The winch lowers the sensor into the water to collect test samples, with data fed back to Northumbrian Water in near real-time for analysis.   

The highly automated aircraft does not need to return to base between tests and can collect data from multiple test locations in a single outing and on a single battery charge. 

Phase one proof-of-concept flights in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Bishop Auckland and Blyth focused on testing Skyports Drone Services and Makutu’s solution, supported by visual ground observers. The next phase will scale operations and see Skyports Drone Services operate remotely operated BVLOS sample collections. 

“There’s a lot of hard work gone into understanding how UAV technology can be used to collect data efficiently, and these successful test flights have proven the validity of it as part of our huge water quality monitoring programme,” said Richard Warneford, Wastewater director at Northumbrian Water. “We’re proud to be making history with this project and we can’t wait to begin rolling it out officially across the North East – it’s just another step towards having the cleanest rivers and beaches in the country.”