San Luis Obispo Creek has long been a critical natural resource for the City of San Luis Obispo, but in recent years, increasing atmospheric river events and flooding have created challenges for the city’s infrastructure and natural habitats. To help address these concerns, a student-led research team from Cal Poly’s Geospatial Systems Lab has partnered with the city to fly a LiDAR mapping mission over a problematic stretch of SLO Creek using the Inspired Flight IF1200 drone.
Working directly with the city biologist, the Cal Poly team set out to collect high-density LiDAR and multispectral imagery over an 8-kilometer corridor of SLO Creek. The goal? To generate an accurate bare earth model of the stream channel that cuts through dense riparian vegetation, data that will directly inform future creek management and flood mitigation strategies.
“We're using our LiDAR to penetrate the vegetation and get an idea of what the actual stream channel looks like,” said Sam Ericksen, a graduate student in Environmental Science and lead pilot for the mission. “This model will help the city develop management plans to prevent flooding, especially as atmospheric river events become more common.”
The team flew the Inspired Flight IF1200 drone equipped with a YellowScan Explorer LiDAR capable of collecting between 300-600 points per square meter, significantly higher density than higher altitude aerial surveys conducted by crewed aircraft. In addition to LiDAR, the payload included a Sony Alpha 6000 camera for RGB imagery and a MicaSense Altum six-band multispectral imager to capture NDVI data for analyzing plant health.
“This UAV platform allows us to collect incredibly detailed data,” said Madison Muschetto, co-pilot and Cal Poly graduate student. “That’s critical for generating a bare earth model and also gives us insights into the health of the riparian ecosystem.”
Flying the IF1200 was not without its challenges. The mission required special airspace authorization to fly at 200 feet AGL (above ground level) due to local restrictions. With dense vegetation and tall trees reaching 140 feet in height, the team had to carefully navigate a narrow flight corridor.
“Our flight plan was essentially a straight-line corridor from Prado Road down to Prefumo Creek, using a lawnmower-style flight pattern where possible,” Erickson explained. “The IF1200 made it possible to operate safely within those constraints, it's maneuverable, reliable, and easy to train new pilots on.”
The collected data will help the City of San Luis Obispo create a management plan for SLO Creek, focusing on areas where vegetation encroachment or downed woody debris might exacerbate flooding. With hyper-dense LiDAR data and detailed imagery in hand, city planners can better understand the existing conditions of the creek and develop targeted solutions.
“This is a pilot project, but the hope is that in the future, we can fly and map the entirety of SLO Creek,” said Ericksen. “We’re excited to contribute to a project that supports real-world environmental management right here in our own community.”
